Robin Kolodny, Ph.D.
rkolodny@temple.edu
Full Professor
Temple University
Year of PhD: 1992
Phone: 610-529-9571
Country: United States (Pennsylvania)
About Me:
Robin Kolodny received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Florida International University in 1985 and her Ph.D. in Political Science from the Johns Hopkins University in 1992. She is Professor of Political Science at Temple University, where she has taught since 1991. Kolodny was an APSA (American Political Science Association) Congressional Fellow in 1995 when she worked in the office of Congresswoman Nancy L. Johnson of Connecticut. In 1999, she received the Emerging Scholar Award from the Political Organizations and Parties Section of APSA. During 2008-09, Kolodny was a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar to the United Kingdom, affiliated with the Department of Politics and Contemporary European Studies at the University of Sussex and the Sussex European Institute (SEI). Kolodny is the author of Pursuing Majorities: Congressional Campaign Committees in American Politics (University of Oklahoma Press, 1998) and coauthor of The Fundamentals of Campaign Finance: Why We Have the System We Have (University of Michigan Press, 2024) with Diana Dwyre (California State University at Chico). Kolodny won the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award in 1998 and the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2011. She was chair of the Department of Political Science at Temple University from 2016-2022.
Research Interests
Campaign Finance
Representation and Electoral Systems
Political Parties and Interest Groups
Political Communication
Elections, Election Administration, and Voting Behavior
U.S. Congress
American Political Parties
American Political Institutions
American Political Culture
Campaigns And Elections
Campaign Finance
Campaign Advertising
Legislative Studies
Business And Politics
Countries of Interest
United States
Publications:
Journal Articles:
Abstract (with Diana Dwyre) There is a good deal of discussion currently among political scientists about the nature of political parties and the impacts of changing party–group relations. Are so-called outside groups promoting extreme candidates and, thus, contributing to polarization? Or perhaps, party-allied groups follow the party’s lead and support the same candidates the party supports. We view parties as extended party networks (EPNs) and examine the campaign spending practices of formal party organizations (the House congressional campaign committees) and some of the groups that are seen as allied with each party and some we expect to be outside each party’s network. We analyze the levels of congruence and divergence in party and group spending in the 2014 House elections. We find that most nonparty groups support the same candidates favored by the party with which they most identify, and very few are outside each party’s EPN supporting candidates who are challenging the party’s picks. Keywords: campaign finance, political parties, networks, interest groups, outside spending, extended party network, congressional elections
Books Written:
Before the U.S. campaign finance system can be fixed, we first have to understand why it has developed into the system as it exists today. The nature of democracy itself, the American capitalist economic system, the content of the U.S. Constitution and how it is interpreted, the structure of our governmental institutions, the competition for governmental power, and the behavior of campaign finance actors have all played a role in shaping the system. The Fundamentals of Campaign Finance in the U.S. takes care to situate the campaign finance system in the context of the broader U.S. political and economic system. Dwyre and Kolodny offer readers a brief tour through the development of the campaign finance regulatory structure, highlighting the Supreme Court's commitment to free speech over political equality from Buckley v. Valeo (1976) through the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA, 2002). They also examine the driving force behind campaign finance reform—corruption—through historical, transactional, and institutional perspectives. While diving into the insufficiency of the disclosure and enforcement of campaign finance laws and calling attention to multiple federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, and (principally) the Federal Election Commission, the authors show how a narrow view on campaign finance makes change difficult and why reforms often have limited success. By examining the fundamentals, Dwyre and Kolodny show the difficulties of changing a political system whose candidates have always relied on private funding of campaigns to one that guarantees free speech rights while minimizing concerns of corruption.
Broad examination of the origins and development of the four congressional campaign committees (CCCs).