Public Support for Campaign Finance Reform: The Role of Policy Narratives, Cultural Predispositions, and Political Knowledge in Collective Policy Preference Formation

Abstract

Objective. We use the variation in public support for campaign finance reform (CFR) to determine factors important to collective policy preference formation. Methods. Using a national survey, we factor analyze the latent dimensions of various reforms, and rely on an experimental design to explain the role policy narratives, cultural theory (CT), and political knowledge play in preference formation. Results. The reform debate groups along three dimensions: (1) strengthening limitations and regulations, (2) deregulating campaign finance, or (3) ending the dependence on private money altogether. We show policy narratives are most influential, and CT has more explanatory value, among those with higher levels of political knowledge. Certain policy narratives tend to increase support for CFR across all cultural types, including those who most oppose reforms that seek to end the dependence on private money. Conclusion. As awareness of campaign finance increases, and as particular narratives become salient, we would expect increasing support for public financing, free media time, and/or public matching funds among those with higher levels of general political knowledge. Campaign Finance Reform for Whom?The conservative majority on the Supreme Court in 2010 created regulatory purgatory in election policy. Assertions that political spending from any source equals speech, and that corruption is nothing more than quid pro quo, have marked this era of deregulation in campaign finance. Coupled with declines in voter turnout, the warning signs of the Citizens United Era are quite dire.

Cultural Worldviews and Political Process Preferences*

“…The data for this study were collected as part of the Cultural Cognition Project at Yale University, with funding from the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. The impetus for this project was to explore public opinions about campaign finance reform, an underexplored area of public opinion research (Jorgensen, Song, and Jones, ). This survey was administered by YouGov, an Internet survey firm, to a national online panel of 900 respondents from October 19, 2011 to October 26, 2011.…”

“…Past scholarship has identified cultural worldviews as an important factor in explaining perceptions and attitudes toward an array of political and social issues (e.g., Jones, ; Song, ), offering a related but possibly more nuanced approach compared to political ideology (Ripberger et al., ). Research areas explored using cultural worldviews are numerous, including (but most certainly not limited to) social organization and role of government (e.g., Wildavsky, ), climate change beliefs (e.g., Jones, ), science communication (e.g., Kahan, Jenkins‐Smith, and Braman, ), campaign finance (e.g., Jorgenson, Song, and Jones, ), and risk perceptions (e.g., Douglas and Wildavsky, 1990), among others. Studies exploring CT often assume (e.g., see Thompson, Ellis, and Wildavsky, ) or argue (e.g., Ripberger et al., ) a relationship between political process preferences and cultural worldviews.…”

Fracking Bad Guys: The Role of Narrative Character Affect in Shaping Hydraulic Fracturing Policy Preferences

“…For this research, we define a narrative using guidelines described by Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) (Jones & McBeth, 2010). The NPF has been applied to a variety of policy arenas, including U.S. firearm policy (Smith-Walter, Peterson, Jones, & Marshall, 2016), campaign finance reform (Jorgensen, Song, & Jones, 2017), and climate change policy (Jones, 2014;Jones & Song, 2014). Recently, NPF has been used to explore nuclear power policy, with findings indicating that advocacy groups turn to social media services like Twitter to disseminate messages that contain structural elements of narratives (Gupta, Ripberger, & Wehde, 2016).…”

How can we use the ‘science of stories’ to produce persuasive scientific stories?

“…Studies have found that intentional causal scenarios, where the villain is acting maliciously, are effective (Crow and Berggren, 2014;Shanahan et al, 2014). However, at least one other study has found that mechanical causal scenarios, where the villain is a system that generates problems unknowingly can also be effective with populations with have high levels of political knowledge (Jorgensen et al, 2017). Plot is another aspect of narrative that appears quite context-dependent and most likely related to congruence.…”