Circle of Influence

As the political season is now in full bloom, many of us are going to be looking at politicians and who influences them.

An easy way of doing this is looking at the "Circle of Influence" — a simple network diagram that reveals how money and favors flow in a clock-wise direction. A generic example from one of our projects, is illustrated below.

Indirect Quid Pro Quo

Starting at the top (12 o'clock) in a clockwise flow...
• Company A wants to obtain new contracts (without competing in the open market)
• Executive(s) from company A donate(s) to political party X
• Members of political party X vote to award contracts/legislation in favor of company A
• Company A receives a monetary benefit from new contracts
• green arrows show money flow, while red arrows show influence/favor

Using these circles of influence we can see how politicians are embedded in networks of indebtedness and favor.

An example of the flow of influence from the Cuyahoga County Corruption Probe is shown here. This flow of influence did not succeed for the company/executive seeking favor.

An interesting insight into influence flows is that the longer they are, the more advantageous they are... for those involved. The more distance (steps in the network flow) a company/executive can put between themselves and the legislation/contracts they want to influence the harder it is to show an association/pressure. Executives and politicains want to avoid the obvious quid pro quo — they want the plausible deniability of an indirect quid pro quo.

What flows of influence will you spot in the upcoming elections?