Abstract :
Social scientists have so far not given much systematic attention to modelling the dynamics of
resource expenditure in a competition between political parties, or candidates, when these are
thought of as full time image-selling agencies. Most studies of campaign expenditure ignore temporal
data, and standard texts generally do not mention time. This article is part of a more general study that
attempts to fill some of this gap.
The main question considered in the study is, what can formal theory tell us about the way in which
competing parties or candidates spend their resources over time?1 To save repetition, I will refer only to
parties in what follows. Some casual observation and inference from works like those of Fisher and of
Whitely and Seyd seem to show that expenditure tends to increase as the election approaches.2
