Money in Politics: Analysis of Political Financing Trends in the United States and Europe

Abstract

In this article we analyze the legal regulation and scientific research on political finance in the United States and Europe. The aim is by analyzing the research on political fundraising carried out in the United States and Europe, to find out the main trends and lack of research. This analysis is relevant because it helps better understand the context of political finance in the United States and Europe, also to identify the trends and the need of future research. Moreover, the analysis and the introduction of topics of political finance research can become the basis of future research on political finance in the United States and Europe. The analysis of legal regulation of political finance suggests that the laws on political finance in the United States and European countries are often distinct, but in most cases the conditions for fundraising is good in both instances.

The analysis of scientific research helped identify the main directions of the research in the United States and Europe. It was found out that the main research direction in which European countries fall behind the United States is fundraising from individual donors, and especially using internet as the channel of communication for fundraising. It was noticed that there is a lack of research analyzing fundraising from the perspective of communication, also analyzing the possibilities of improving fundraising mechanisms to raise more funds from individual donors, especially using the power of internet.