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Campaign Finance And American Democracy
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Book Synopsis Campaign Finance & American Democracy by : David M. Primo
Download or read book Campaign Finance & American Democracy written by David M. Primo and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-11-13 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades, and particularly since the US Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision, lawmakers and other elites have told Americans that stricter campaign finance laws are needed to improve faith in the elections process, increase trust in the government, and counter cynicism toward politics. But as David M. Primo and Jeffrey D. Milyo argue, politicians and the public alike should reconsider the conventional wisdom in light of surprising and comprehensive empirical evidence to the contrary. Primo and Milyo probe original survey data to determine Americans’ sentiments on the role of money in politics, what drives these sentiments, and why they matter. What Primo and Milyo find is that while many individuals support the idea of reform, they are also skeptical that reform would successfully limit corruption, which Americans believe stains almost every fiber of the political system. Moreover, support for campaign finance restrictions is deeply divided along party lines, reflecting the polarization of our times. Ultimately, Primo and Milyo contend, American attitudes toward money in politics reflect larger fears about the health of American democracy, fears that will not be allayed by campaign finance reform.
Book Synopsis Money, Power, and Elections by : Rodney A. Smith
Download or read book Money, Power, and Elections written by Rodney A. Smith and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2014-04-07 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have campaign finance reform laws actually worked? Is money less influential in electing candidates today than it was thirty years ago when legislation was first enacted? Absolutely not, argues Rodney A. Smith in this passionately written, fact-filled, and provocative book. According to Smith, the laws have had exactly the opposite of their intended effect. They have increased the likelihood that incumbents in the House and Senate will be reelected, and they have greatly diminished the chances that candidates who are not wealthy will be elected. Smith's claims are supported by convincing data; he collected and analyzed information about all federal elections since 1920. These data show clearly that money matters now more than ever. Smith thinks that reform legislation has created a new inequality for candidates that, if left unchecked, threatens to destroy the American electoral process by obliterating the foundational principle of free speech. He argues that "money buys speech" and when candidates lack money to buy media time and space they are effectively silenced. Their inability to "speak freely" violates the most significant intentions of our nation's founders: that a sovereign citizenry elect its own leaders based on a free exchange of ideas. For Smith, campaign finance reform has unwittingly unbalanced the checks and balances created by the Framers of the Constitution.After presenting a detailed historical overview of how we have reached the present crisis, Smith proposes a simple solution: institute a process that completely discloses relevant information about campaign donors and recipients of donations. All disclosures would be available to the media, which would be able to investigate and report them fully. Only then, Smith believes, will the United States have the opportunity to be the democratic republic that its founders intended.
Book Synopsis The Undermining of American Democracy by : Clayton D. Peoples
Download or read book The Undermining of American Democracy written by Clayton D. Peoples and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-09-06 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The public believes that politicians in the US favor special interests over their constituents and that our political institutions have become corrupt—and they are right. A growing body of evidence shows that special interests have disproportionate sway over policy via campaign contributions and lobbying. In this book, the author presents this evidence in a logical, understandable way; he then illustrates how campaign contributions harm our economy, exacerbate inequality, and undermine our democracy. One of the most startling findings of the book is that campaign contributions led to the Financial Crisis and Great Recession. The author concludes that campaign contributions have effectively created an oligarchy in the US, and, thus, reform is needed to save our democracy. The final chapter of the book suggests a number of different reforms that could be pursued—and highlights some ways in which these reforms can be achieved.
Book Synopsis Money, Power, and Elections by : Rodney A. Smith
Download or read book Money, Power, and Elections written by Rodney A. Smith and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2014-04-07 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have campaign finance reform laws actually worked? Is money less influential in electing candidates today than it was thirty years ago when legislation was first enacted? Absolutely not, argues Rodney A. Smith in this passionately written, fact-filled, and provocative book. According to Smith, the laws have had exactly the opposite of their intended effect. They have increased the likelihood that incumbents in the House and Senate will be reelected, and they have greatly diminished the chances that candidates who are not wealthy will be elected. Smith's claims are supported by convincing data; he collected and analyzed information about all federal elections since 1920. These data show clearly that money matters now more than ever. Smith thinks that reform legislation has created a new inequality for candidates that, if left unchecked, threatens to destroy the American electoral process by obliterating the foundational principle of free speech. He argues that "money buys speech" and when candidates lack money to buy media time and space they are effectively silenced. Their inability to "speak freely" violates the most significant intentions of our nation's founders: that a sovereign citizenry elect its own leaders based on a free exchange of ideas. For Smith, campaign finance reform has unwittingly unbalanced the checks and balances created by the Framers of the Constitution. After presenting a detailed historical overview of how we have reached the present crisis, Smith proposes a simple solution: institute a process that completely discloses relevant information about campaign donors and recipients of donations. All disclosures would be available to the media, which would be able to investigate and report them fully. Only then, Smith believes, will the United States have the opportunity to be the democratic republic that its founders intended.
Book Synopsis Democracy by the People by : Eugene D. Mazo
Download or read book Democracy by the People written by Eugene D. Mazo and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-29 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thanks to a series of recent US Supreme Court decisions, corporations can now spend unlimited sums to influence elections, Super PACs and dark money groups are flourishing, and wealthy individuals and special interests increasingly dominate American politics. Despite the overwhelming support of Americans to fix this broken system, serious efforts at reform have languished. Campaign finance is a highly intricate and complex area of the law, and the current system favors the incumbent politicians who oversee it. This illuminating book takes these hard realities as a starting point and offers realistic solutions to reform campaign finance. With contributions from more than a dozen leading scholars of election law, it should be read by anyone interested in reclaiming the promise of American democracy.
Book Synopsis Pay-to-Play Politics by : Heath Brown
Download or read book Pay-to-Play Politics written by Heath Brown and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-04-11 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pay-to-Play Politics examines money and politics from different angles to understand a central paradox of American democracy: why, when the public and politicians decry money as the worst aspect of American politics, are there so few signs of change? Everyone from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders to Ted Cruz complains about the corrupting role of money and politics, but money is the lifeblood of their political survival. The public, too, deplores big money politics, despite regularly reelecting the richest candidates for office. The purpose of this book is to reconcile how—against many people's wishes—the connection between money and politics has come to define American democracy. Examining the issue from the perspective of the public, the courts, big business, Congress, and the presidency, Heath Brown argues that money can often be harmful to the political process, but not always in ways we expect or in ways we can directly observe. More money does not necessarily guarantee electoral, legislative, or executive victories, but money does greatly change political access, opportunity, and trust. Without a nuanced understanding of the nature of the problem, future reforms will be misguided and fruitless. Pay-to-Play Politics concludes by making concrete recommendations for reform, including feasible ways to reach bipartisan consensus.
Book Synopsis The Fallacy of Campaign Finance Reform by : John Samples
Download or read book The Fallacy of Campaign Finance Reform written by John Samples and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At first glance, campaign finance reform looks like a good idea. McCain-Feingold, for instance, regulates campaigns by prohibiting national political parties from accepting soft money contributions from corporations, labor unions, and wealthy individuals. But are such measures, or any of the numerous and similarly restrictive proposals that have circulated through Washington in recent years, really good for our democracy? John Samples says no, and here he takes a penetrating look into the premises and consequences of the long crusade against big money in politics. How many Americans, he asks, know that there is little to no evidence that campaign contributions really influence members of Congress? Or that so-called negative political advertising actually improves the democratic process by increasing voter turnout and knowledge? Or that limits on campaign contributions make it harder to run for office, thereby protecting incumbent representatives from losing their seats of power? Posing tough questions such as these, Samples uncovers numerous fallacies beneath proposals for campaign finance reform. He argues that our most common concerns about money in politics are misplaced because the ideals implicit in our notion of corruption are incoherent or indefensible. The chance to regulate money in politics allows representatives to serve their own interests at a cost to their constituents. And, ironically, this long crusade against the corruption caused by campaign contributions allows public officials to reduce their vulnerability by suppressing electoral competition. Defying long-held ssumptions and conventional political wisdom, The Fallacy of Campaign Finance Reform is a provocative and decidedly nonpartisan work that will be essential for anyone concerned about the future of American government.
Book Synopsis Campaign Finance and American Democracy by : Yasmin Dawood
Download or read book Campaign Finance and American Democracy written by Yasmin Dawood and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This article considers the vast academic literature on campaign finance regulation in the United States, drawing on the fields of political theory, American politics, election law, constitutional law, and economics. The scholarly treatment of campaign finance regulation has become increasingly focused on fundamental questions about democratic governance and democratic values, and it has generated profound debates about participation, representation, free speech, political equality, liberty, and the organization and distribution of political power in government and society. This article reviews the original debate about campaign finance regulation and traces its evolution in both political theory and constitutional law, identifying current areas of inquiry and new directions in research. In particular, the article focuses on corruption, political equality and representation, electoral exceptionalism, and the post-Citizens United landscape. It also surveys empirical findings from political science and economics.
Book Synopsis Buying the Vote by : Robert E. Mutch
Download or read book Buying the Vote written by Robert E. Mutch and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are corporations citizens? Is political inequality a necessary aspect of a democracy or something that must be stamped out? These are the questions that have been at the heart of the debate surrounding campaign finance reform for nearly half a century. But as Robert E. Mutch demonstrates in this fascinating book, these were not always controversial matters. The tenets that corporations do not count as citizens, and that self-government functions best by reducing political inequality, were commonly heldup until the early years of the twentieth century, when Congress recognized the strength of these principles by prohibiting corporations from making campaign contributions, passing a disclosure law, and setting limits on campaign expenditures. But conservative opposition began to appear in the 1970s. Well represented on the Supreme Court, opponents of campaign finance reform won decisions granting First Amendment rights to corporations, and declaring the goal of reducing political inequality to be unconstitutional. Buying the Vote analyzes the rise and decline of campaign finance reform by tracking the evolution of both the ways in which presidential campaigns have been funded since the late nineteenth century. Through close examinations of major Supreme Court decisions, Mutch shows how the Court has fashioned a new and profoundly inegalitarian definition of American democracy. Drawing on rarely studied archival materials on presidential campaign finance funds, Buying the Vote is an illuminating look at politics, money, and power in America.
Book Synopsis Campaign Advertising and American Democracy by : Michael M. Franz
Download or read book Campaign Advertising and American Democracy written by Michael M. Franz and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2007-11-28 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been estimated that more than three million political ads were televised leading up to the elections of 2004. More than $800,000,000 was spent on TV ads in the race for the White House alone and presidential candidates, along with their party and interest group allies, broadcast over a million ads -- more than twice the number aired before the 2000 elections. What were the consequences of this barrage of advertising? Were viewers turned off by political advertising to the extent that it disuaded them from voting, as some critics suggest? Did they feel more connected to political issues and the political system or were they alienated? These are the questions this book answers, based on a unique, robust, and extensive database dedicated to political advertising. Confronting prevailing opinion, the authors of this carefully researched work find that political ads may actually educate, engage, and mobilize American voters. Only in the rarest of circumstances do they have negative impacts.
Book Synopsis No Place for Amateurs by : Dennis W. Johnson
Download or read book No Place for Amateurs written by Dennis W. Johnson and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers an insider's tour through the fast-paced, often sordid world of the professional political campaign.
Book Synopsis Voting with Dollars by : Bruce Ackerman
Download or read book Voting with Dollars written by Bruce Ackerman and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: divdivIn this provocative book, two leading law professors challenge the existing campaign reform agenda and present a new initiative that avoids the mistakes of the past. Bruce Ackerman and Ian Ayres build on the example of the secret ballot and propose a system of “secret donation booths” for campaign contributions. They unveil a plan in which the government provides each voter with a special credit card account containing fifty “Patriot dollars” for presidential elections. To use this money, citizens go to their local ATM machine and anonymously send their Patriot dollars to their favorite candidates or political organizations. Americans are free to make additional contributions, but they must also give these gifts anonymously. Because candidates cannot identify who provided the funds, it will be much harder for big contributors to buy political influence. And the need for politicians to compete for the Patriot dollars will give much more power to the people. Ackerman and Ayres work out the operating details of their plan, anticipate problems, design safeguards, suggest overseers, and show how their proposals satisfy the most stringent constitutional requirements. They conclude with a model statute that could serve as the basis of a serious congressional effort to restore Americans’ faith in democratic politics./DIV/DIV
Book Synopsis Paying for Democracy by : Kevin Casas-Zamora
Download or read book Paying for Democracy written by Kevin Casas-Zamora and published by ECPR Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text covers political finance systems and direct state funding in Costa Rica and Uraguay as well as state funding and campaign finance practices in those countries.
Book Synopsis Campaigns and Elections American Style by : Candice J. Nelson
Download or read book Campaigns and Elections American Style written by Candice J. Nelson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-09-29 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With new and revised chapters throughout, the sixth edition of Campaigns and Elections American Style allows academics and campaign professionals the chance to explain how the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 general election, and 2022 midterm election upended the campaign process and changed the landscape of political campaigns forever. Offering a unique and careful mix of Democrat and Republican, academic and practitioner, and male and female campaign perspectives, this volume scrutinizes national and local-level campaigns. Students, citizens, candidates, and campaign managers learn not only how to win elections but also why it is imperative to do so in a safe and ethical way. Perfect for a variety of courses in American government, this book is especially valuable to schools of campaign management and campaign professionals working at every level from the local to the global. Highlights of the Sixth Edition Covers the 2020 and 2022 elections with an eye to 2024. Examines changes to the campaign process as a result of COVID-19 and puts them in context with campaign traditions over time. Includes a new organization that moves campaign finance up front to emphasize the centrality of fundraising to successful campaigns. Offers more data to inform campaign planning and management, especially related to key topics such as the change in news media coverage, the growth and use of social media, the use of "big data" in campaigns, and changes in field and voting rules and policies.
Book Synopsis Game Changers by : Henrik M. Schatzinger
Download or read book Game Changers written by Henrik M. Schatzinger and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-02-03 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book of its kind to provide an accessible overview of the changes Citizens United brought to political campaigns and political representation, it combines rigorous academic research with many examples of ongoing trends from the campaign trail. Even though campaign finance involves complex legal issues, the book is set up to be engaging for both students of political campaigns and American politics, as well as civically engaged citizens who want to learn more about outside groups and their impact on campaigns and public policy. The book makes the case that Super PACs and dark money groups qualify as game changers of political campaigns not only because of what these groups can do independently from candidates and their increasing ability to match or even exceed candidates’ financial resources, but because their actions influence the political incentives and strategies of candidates and political parties. We also point out evidence that those changes go beyond campaigns—they affect how legislators represent their constituents; how donors put pressure on lawmakers to adopt certain legislation after outside groups supported them; how the regulatory environment can benefit donors as a result of actions taken by federal agencies to repeal or dismantle existing laws; and how extreme positions by politicians can be incentivized and progress stalled when megadonors and outside groups reward political ideologues. Our hope is that this text inspires readers to draw their own conclusions about the effects the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has had and continues to have on the inner workings of American democracy. Some may even feel moved to take action that will empower ordinary citizens who want to have more of a voice in the democratic process. Given the high stakes associated with elections and the political changes they can bring due to the highly polarized political environment we live in, we believe that this book will add value to not only courses focusing on campaigns, elections, interest groups, and political communication, but also other courses such as introductory American Government courses.
Book Synopsis Campaign Finance and Political Polarization by : Raymond J. La Raja
Download or read book Campaign Finance and Political Polarization written by Raymond J. La Raja and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Efforts to reform the U.S. campaign finance system typically focus on the corrupting influence of large contributions. Yet, as Raymond J. La Raja and Brian F. Schaffner argue, reforms aimed at cutting the flow of money into politics have unintentionally favored candidates with extreme ideological agendas and, consequently, fostered political polarization. Drawing on data from 50 states and the U.S. Congress over 20 years, La Raja and Schaffner reveal that current rules allow wealthy ideological groups and donors to dominate the financing of political campaigns. In order to attract funding, candidates take uncompromising positions on key issues and, if elected, take their partisan views into the legislature. As a remedy, the authors propose that additional campaign money be channeled through party organizations—rather than directly to candidates—because these organizations tend to be less ideological than the activists who now provide the lion’s share of money to political candidates. Shifting campaign finance to parties would ease polarization by reducing the influence of “purist” donors with their rigid policy stances. La Raja and Schaffner conclude the book with policy recommendations for campaign finance in the United States. They are among the few non-libertarians who argue that less regulation, particularly for political parties, may in fact improve the democratic process.
Book Synopsis The Political Fix by : Douglas E. Schoen
Download or read book The Political Fix written by Douglas E. Schoen and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-01-05 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Top political insider Douglas E. Schoen dissects the failures of modern politics and unveils the practical-minded, citizen-powered solutions that will revive American democracy One of America's foremost political pollsters, Douglas E. Schoen, shows how the electoral system can be mended so that it once again serves and inspires the American people—no matter their party. In The Political Fix, Schoen lays out provocative yet highly achievable solutions—from completely unmoderated debates to a rotating primary schedule—that will compel politicians to be responsive to citizens rather than to special interests. To ensure justice for all, he calls for removing the attorney general from the cabinet and creating joint chiefs of staff for the Justice Department. He points to innovations on the state and local level—from Alaska, where the state checkbook is posted on the Web, to New York City, where residents can call a single toll-free number to access government services. And he argues that the obsession with capping the influence of large donors has strangled genuine reform—and the answer is to get more money into politics, through a tax credit for small donors. Schoen provides a rallying cry and an action plan for the thousands of Americans hungry for long-lasting political change.
