Learning from other liberal democracies : a comparative study of campaign finance in Germany, Britain, and the United States

Comparative politics is a field of study aimed at finding the connections and differences among the states and governments across the world. Through comparative research better policies and practices can be learned an implemented. Campaign finance is a particular area of political research that focuses on the raising and spending of money by parties, individual candidates, and governments to pay for elections. This paper aims to find the similarities and differences between Germany, Britain, and the United States. Comparing the systems of campaign finance in place in these three countries will give insight into the strengths and weaknesses of each. There are problems with the current system of financing campaigns in the United States and solutions must be found. From the research gathered through comparison of these three countries prescriptions can be made towards solving the problems of the current system in place.