| ID | 186671 |
| Title Proper | Small Money Donating as Democratic Politics |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Jennifer Rubenstein ; Rubenstein, Jennifer |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Since 2008, the number of people in the United States making small monetary donations to political causes, both within and beyond electoral politics, has skyrocketed. While critics of “big money” in politics laud these donations because they are small, proponents of small-scale democratic political action eye them suspiciously because they are monetary. Neither group interrogates whether the monetariness of these donations might be a source of their democratic potential. Building on Wendy Brown’s conceptual distinction between monetization and economization, I argue that small-money political donations are potentially democratic not only because they are small, but also because they are monetary. More specifically, the mobility, divisibility, commensurability, and fungibility of money help make small-money political donations potentially democratic, by making them potentially accessible, non-intrusive, and collective. Money is the coin of the economic realm, but it can also be a currency of democratic politics. |
| `In' analytical Note | Perspectives on Politics Vol. 20, No.3; Sep 2022: p.965 - 982 |
| Journal Source | Perspectives on Politics 2022-09 20, 3 |
| Key Words | Democratic Politics ; Small Money Donating |