Money and votes: a New Zealand example

Abstract

The role of money in elections is attracting considerable contemporary attention, because of the potential for corruption of electoral and political systems. In part, this concern is based on a belief that money matters in those elections, that how much parties and candidates spend on their campaigns can influence how many votes they win. Tests of this belief suggest that this is indeed so, especially in the case of challengers' spending. The New Zealand electoral system offers an excellent arena in which to test these ideas further, because its adoption of MMP allows examination not only of the impact of spending on changing patterns of party support over time but also of patterns of switching between parties in the two components of each election. Analyses of the 2005 general election there provide substantial support for the argument that money matters, especially for the country's smaller political parties.