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Disaggregating and Explaining Corporate Political Activity: Domestic and Foreign Corporations in National Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Wendy L. Hansen  and
Neil J. Mitchell
Wendy L. Hansen
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
Neil J. Mitchell
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
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Abstract

Corporate political activity is usually operationalized and analyzed as financial contributions to candidates or political parties through political action committees (PACs). Very little attention has been paid to other dimensions, such as lobbying, in a systematic way. On a theoretical level we address the issue of how to conceive of PAC contributions, lobbying, and other corporate activities, such as charitable giving, in terms of the strategic behavior of corporations and the implications of “foreignness” for the different types of corporate political activity. On an empirical level we examine the political activities of Fortune 500 firms, along with an oversampling of U.S. affiliates of large foreign investors for the 1987–88 election cycle.

Type
Research Note
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 94 , Issue 4 , December 2000 , pp. 891 - 903
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2000

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