[lbo-talk] Thomas Ferguson's Golden Rule: criticism? compliments?

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Jul 11 11:11:33 PDT 2006


On Jul 11, 2006, at 1:52 PM, Jerry Monaco wrote:


> Doug or anyone else on this list,
>
> I was wondering if anyone has read _Golden Rule : The Investment
> Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political
> Systems_ by Thomas Ferguson.
>
> If so what do you think of it? Any criticisms?

I haven't read the book, but I've read a lot of Ferguson's other stuff, and am familiar with his argument. I think he underestimates the degree to which big givers follow the polls; in his model, the givers lead the electorate. There was a big shift in campaign contribs to the Republicans *after* the 1994 sweep, and previously Democratic houses like Goldman Sachs went Republican in the early Bush years (i.e., not in 1998 or 1999).

Doug



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list