RIVERSIDE, Calif. — As campaign rhetoric heats up heading into the November elections, scholars at the University of California, Riverside are available to discuss issues from California’s initiative process and the impact of foreclosures on voting to immigration policy and the economy.

Voters, Initiatives, Corporate InfluenceWilliam Barndt, assistant professor of political science(951) 827-3361[email protected]http://politicalscience.ucr.edu/people/faculty/barndt/index.html

Barndt's research focuses on the intersection of democratic politics, development and inequality in Latin America. His current book project, “Democracy for Sale: Business Parties and the New Conservative Politics in the Americas,” includes a discussion about the growing opportunities available to corporations for participating directly in the U.S. electoral process. “Over the past quarter century, business-sponsored parties and party factions have won presidencies and nationally important governorships throughout much of the (Americas), including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, and Panama,” he writes, and “corporation-based political organizations may be emerging in the United States as well.”

Tags: political science, democracy, Latin America, U.S. electoral process, business and democracy

UC Riverside has a TV studio with a fiber-optic link to a satellite feed and an ISDN line at the campus radio station, KUCR-FM.