However I don't know of anything that goes in depth of what you are proposing. I think a clean UI that shows something as basic as politicians voting records can make voters more informed.
Is this information public knowledge? could it the extraction of information be automated or would it require journalism and looking through paper trails?
You can always request this data directly from the SEC or the FEC for the raw reports. In my experience, the regulation is does not provide enough transparency. The three main issues I can think of right now are the following:
- Citizen's United. No need to elaborate.
- It is incredibly hard to marry lobbying and fundraising data. The company names are not the cleanest.
- Extent of enforced disclosure in the Lobbying Disclosure Act: lobbyists do not need to say which bill they are trying to influence, or which official (political or bureacratic) they are trying to influence / contact.
Both acts have tiny loopholes. I don't remember the exact quantities, but if you're donating an amount smaller than X to a politician, it does not need to be reported. And if less than Y% of your time is spent attempting to influence politicians / government agents, you don't need to report this.
Probably the best generically accessible option for the lay person is OpenSecrets, and then there may be state or municipal level projects for a jurisdiction you care about.
You can also use the Federal Register as well, but that requires a little inside alchemy to navigate for many.
It would be great if it could have an archive of opinions around specific topics too. And perhaps a way to get insight into the background/motivations of donors. Like on Crunchbase you can visit the websites of funds that invested and get an idea of their goals/ambitions.
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[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 52.5 ms ] threadHowever I don't know of anything that goes in depth of what you are proposing. I think a clean UI that shows something as basic as politicians voting records can make voters more informed.
Is this information public knowledge? could it the extraction of information be automated or would it require journalism and looking through paper trails?
Has a fair amount of data about current MPs including expenses claimed and voting history.
I haven't used it, so I don't know about the quality of the data
- Citizen's United. No need to elaborate.
- It is incredibly hard to marry lobbying and fundraising data. The company names are not the cleanest.
- Extent of enforced disclosure in the Lobbying Disclosure Act: lobbyists do not need to say which bill they are trying to influence, or which official (political or bureacratic) they are trying to influence / contact.
Both acts have tiny loopholes. I don't remember the exact quantities, but if you're donating an amount smaller than X to a politician, it does not need to be reported. And if less than Y% of your time is spent attempting to influence politicians / government agents, you don't need to report this.
LittleSis* is a free database of who-knows-who at the heights of business and government
* opposite of Big Brother
We're a grassroots watchdog network connecting the dots between the world's most powerful people and organizations
You can also use the Federal Register as well, but that requires a little inside alchemy to navigate for many.