It is often claimed that the accumulation of "war chests" by incumbents deters entry by high-quality challengers in Congressional elections. This paper presents a game-theoretic analysis of the interaction between an incumbent, potential challengers, an interest group, and a representative...

Based on contribution patterns to parties in Germany and elsewhere, we suggest that European democracies should use a mixed system where private funding can play a larger role than public funding. In Germany the high level of public funding for parties can be reduced without expecting...