Subject · POL

Politics and Government

How lobbying, campaign finance and the economics of attention shape what governments do, across both parties, and whose preferences become law.

8 chapters · 143 findings · finding numbers carry the prefix POL

01
The Return on Lobbying
What interests spend on lobbying, what the 2004 repatriation holiday produced, and what studies of lobbying returns find and do not find.
Chapter as PDF
02
Whose Preferences Pass
Gilens and Page (2014), the published critiques and the counter-evidence on whether voters or organized interests prevail.
Chapter as PDF
03
Division as Revenue
Platform revenue, engagement research and the 2020 election experiments, and the refund and recurring-donation record at both parties' fundraising conduits.
Chapter as PDF
04
Members and Markets
The STOCK Act, the disclosure record and the studies that found, and failed to find, excess returns on congressional trading.
Chapter as PDF
05
Money Without Names
Independent expenditures, 501(c)(4) pass-throughs and donor-disclosure gaps, with left and right examples measured the same way.
Chapter as PDF
06
Foreign Funding and Influence
FARA enforcement, cases across both parties, National Endowment for Democracy funding, and foreign gifts to universities and think tanks.
Chapter as PDF
07
Managing the Narrative
What official records show about intelligence agencies, the Pentagon, federal agencies and foundations shaping what the public hears.
Chapter as PDF
08
The Central Bank
Reserve Bank boards and stock, emergency lending, the BlackRock contracts of 2008 and 2020, and what the inspectors general found.
Chapter as PDF

Mechanisms documented in this report