(iPoster) Inherited Influence: The Political Giving of Billionaire Heirs

• In Event: Poster Session: Elections, Campaigns and Voting Behavior & International Perspectives on Networks and Political Engagement
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Elections, Campaigns and Voting Behavior

Abstract

The outsized influence of the super-wealthy on American politics has become increasingly salient, particularly in an era of growing economic stratification. Billionaires are central power players in the political landscape. However, with wealth in the U.S. concentrated among the elderly, these billionaires will not be around forever. Thus, the heirs of the mega-rich deserve closer examination as they have the potential to shape the contours of political giving not only in the present, but in the decades to come. In this paper I leverage an original data set of the Forbes 400 Wealthiest Americans and their children to analyze the giving patterns of billionaire heirs, comparing their financial involvement in politics to that of their parents. I find that while the children of the uber-rich give less in magnitude than their parents, they often mirror their parent’s ideological leanings. However, notable exceptions arise and when differences do emerge, heirs tend to give to more Democratic-aligned causes and candidates than their parents. These findings have important implications for understanding the evolving landscape of political giving, the role of generational wealth in shaping political influence, and the ways in which this influence furthers representational inequalities.

Author

• Ryan Mundy, University of California, Irvine