The Logic of Business Unity: Corporate Contributions to the 1980 Congressional Elections

Abstract

Pluralists contend that the actual political power of business is much less than its potential power, because business is internally divided. An examination of the campaign contributions of corporate PACs in the 1980 Congressional elections shows that: (1) businesses didfollow differing political strategies, with marked differences in their relative commitments to pragmatism and ideology, (2) At the level of particular races, however, business was usually highly unified, (3) The degree of unity actually found is greater than that which would be expected given the differing corporate strategies, implying the possibility that inter-corporate communication is used to reduce direct and open political conflict.