How Might Digital Campaigning Affect the Problems of Political Finance?

This lecture deals with the intersection between three sets of challenges, each of which constitutes an existential threat to democracies across the world. The first is linked to money in politics, which poses the danger not only of ‘policy capture’ but also, in worse-case scenarios, of state capture by monied interests. The principal question addressed by this lecture is poised at the meeting place between these sets of challenges: How might digital campaigning affect the problems of political finance? Also integrated into the analysis is a third set of challenges: those which arise from the Covid-19 pandemic. This lecture reflects on how the pandemic might shape the impact of digital campaigning on the problems of political finance. Follow the lecture for the conclusion and read also the paper for more details.