Download or read book OECD Public Governance Reviews Financing Democracy Funding of Political Parties and Election Campaigns and the Risk of Policy Capture written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-04 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent debate on the role of money in politics has shed the light on the challenges of political finance regulations. What are the risks associated with the funding of political parties and election campaigns? Why are existing regulatory models still insufficient to tackle those risks?
Download or read book Funding Democratization written by Milton Konvitz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy is a fine political system, but an expensive economic venture. Political parties and election campaigns cost money. Where does the money come from and at what sacrifice? Issues connected with political finance are significant but often neglected aspects of the process of democratization. Funding Democratization examines how money and politics interact in emerging democracies. The contributors investigate the funding of political parties in early North America, financial uncertainties of party formation in European countries, funding of democratization in new democracies, and the influence of funding on contenders for power. They also address the nature of political competition in countries that are seeking to embrace, often for the first time, the rules of democracy. They question in what ways politicians can help make democracy affordable. The volume compares important democratizing countries, such as Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Spain, and the regions of East Asia and East/Central Europe. It also investigates the lessons that emerging democracies can learn from the history of political finance in today's more established democracies. Funding Democratization will be of interest to political scientists and specialists in international social and political development.
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.
Download or read book The Price of Democracy written by Julia Cagé and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why and how systems of political financing and representation in Europe and North America give outsized influence to the wealthy and undermine democracy, and what we can do about it. One person, one vote. In theory, everyone in a democracy has equal power to decide elections. But it’s hardly news that, in reality, political outcomes are heavily determined by the logic of one dollar, one vote. We take the political power of money for granted. But does it have to be this way? In The Price of Democracy, Julia Cagé combines economic and historical analysis with political theory to show how profoundly our systems in North America and Europe, from think tanks and the media to election campaigns, are shaped by money. She proposes fundamental reforms to bring democracy back into line with its egalitarian promise. Cagé shows how different countries have tried to develop legislation to curb the power of private money and to develop public systems to fund campaigns and parties. But these attempts have been incoherent and unsystematic. She demonstrates that it is possible to learn from these experiments in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere to design a better system that would increase political participation and trust. This would involve setting a strict cap on private donations and creating a public voucher system to give each voter an equal amount to spend in support of political parties. More radically, Cagé argues that a significant fraction of seats in parliamentary assemblies should be set aside for representatives from disadvantaged socioeconomic groups. At a time of widespread political disenchantment, The Price of Democracy is a bracing reminder of the problems we face and an inspirational guide to the potential for reform.
Download or read book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy written by Greg Palast and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2003-02-25 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Palast is astonishing, he gets the real evidence no one else has the guts to dig up." Vincent Bugliosi, author of None Dare Call it Treason and Helter Skelter Award-winning investigative journalist Greg Palast digs deep to unearth the ugly facts that few reporters working anywhere in the world today have the courage or ability to cover. From East Timor to Waco, he has exposed some of the most egregious cases of political corruption, corporate fraud, and financial manipulation in the US and abroad. His uncanny investigative skills as well as his no-holds-barred style have made him an anathema among magnates on four continents and a living legend among his colleagues and his devoted readership. This exciting collection, now revised and updated, brings together some of Palast's most powerful writing of the past decade. Included here are his celebrated Washington Post exposé on Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris's stealing of the presidential election in Florida, and recent stories on George W. Bush's payoffs to corporate cronies, the payola behind Hillary Clinton, and the faux energy crisis. Also included in this volume are new and previously unpublished material, television transcripts, photographs, and letters.
Download or read book Subsidizing Democracy written by Michael G. Miller and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2013-12-15 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), the case that allowed corporate and union spending in elections, many Americans despaired over the corrosive influence that private and often anonymous money can have on political platforms, campaigns, and outcomes at the federal and state level. In McComish v. Bennett (2011), the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the matching funds feature of so-called "Clean Elections" public financing laws, but there has been no strong challenge to the constitutionality of public funding as such. In Subsidizing Democracy, Michael G. Miller considers the impact of state-level public election financing on political campaigns through the eyes of candidates. Miller’s insights are drawn from survey data obtained from more than 1,000 candidates, elite interview testimony, and twenty years of election data. This book is therefore not only an effort to judge the effects of existing public election funding but also a study of elite behavior, campaign effects, and the structural factors that influence campaigns and voters. The presence of publicly funded candidates in elections, Miller reports, results in broad changes to the electoral system, including more interaction between candidates and the voting public and significantly higher voter participation. He presents evidence that by providing neophytes with resources that would have been unobtainable otherwise, subsidies effectively manufacture quality challengers. Miller describes how matching-funds provisions of Clean Elections laws were pervasively manipulated by candidates and parties and were ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court. A revealing book that will change the way we think about campaign funding, Subsidizing Democracy concludes with an evaluation of existing proposals for future election policy in light of Miller’s findings.
Download or read book Capitalism v Democracy written by Timothy Kuhner and published by Stanford Law Books. This book was released on 2014-06-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As of the latest national elections, it costs approximately $1 billion to become president, $10 million to become a Senator, and $1 million to become a Member of the House. High-priced campaigns, an elite class of donors and spenders, superPACs, and increasing corporate political power have become the new normal in American politics. In Capitalism v. Democracy, Timothy Kuhner explains how these conditions have corrupted American democracy, turning it into a system of rule that favors the wealthy and marginalizes ordinary citizens. Kuhner maintains that these conditions have corrupted capitalism as well, routing economic competition through political channels and allowing politically powerful companies to evade market forces. The Supreme Court has brought about both forms of corruption by striking down campaign finance reforms that limited the role of money in politics. Exposing the extreme economic worldview that pollutes constitutional interpretation, Kuhner shows how the Court became the architect of American plutocracy. Capitalism v. Democracy offers the key to understanding why corporations are now citizens, money is political speech, limits on corporate spending are a form of censorship, democracy is a free market, and political equality and democratic integrity are unconstitutional constraints on money in politics. Supreme Court opinions have dictated these conditions in the name of the Constitution, as though the Constitution itself required the privatization of democracy. Kuhner explores the reasons behind these opinions, reveals that they form a blueprint for free market democracy, and demonstrates that this design corrupts both politics and markets. He argues that nothing short of a constitutional amendment can set the necessary boundaries between capitalism and democracy.
Download or read book Costs of Democracy written by Devesh Kapur and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-13 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most troubling critiques of contemporary democracy is the inability of representative governments to regulate the deluge of money in politics. If it is impossible to conceive of democracies without elections, it is equally impractical to imagine elections without money. Costs of Democracy is an exhaustive, ground-breaking study of money in Indian politics that opens readers’ eyes to the opaque and enigmatic ways in which money flows through the political veins of the world’s largest democracy. Through original, in-depth investigation—drawing from extensive fieldwork on political campaigns, pioneering surveys, and innovative data analysis—the contributors in this volume uncover the institutional and regulatory contexts governing the torrent of money in politics; the sources of political finance; the reasons for such large spending; and how money flows, influences, and interacts with different tiers of government. The book raises uncomfortable questions about whether the flood of money risks washing away electoral democracy itself.
Download or read book Funding Virtue written by Marina Ottaway and published by Carnegie Endowment. This book was released on 2000 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States and many other international donors have embraced civil-society aid as a key tool of democracy promotion. This collection of essays analyzes civil-society aid in five regions - South Africa, the Philippines, Peru, Egypt and Romania - focusing on crucial issues and dilemmas.
Download or read book Nation on the Take written by Wendell Potter and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American democracy has become coin operated. Special interest groups increasingly control every level of government. The necessity of raising huge sums of campaign cash has completely changed the character of politics and policy making, determining what elected representatives stand for and how their time is spent. The marriage of great wealth and intense political influence has rendered our country unable to address our most pressing problems, from runaway government spending to climate change to the wealth gap. It also defines our daily lives: from the cars we drive to the air we breathe to the debt we owe. In this powerful work of reportage, Wendell Potter and Nick Penniman, two vigilant watchdogs, expose legalized corruption and link it to the kitchen-table issues citizens face every day. Inciting our outrage, the authors then inspire us by introducing us to an army of reformers laying the groundwork for change, ready to be called into action. The battle plan for reform presented is practical, realistic, and concrete. No one--except some lobbyists and major political donors--likes business as usual, and this book aims to help forge a new army of reformers who are compelled by a patriotic duty to fight for a better democracy. An impassioned, infuriating, yet ultimately hopeful call to arms, Nation on the Take lays bare the reach of moneyed interests and charts a way forward, toward the recovery of America's original promise.
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.
Download or read book Funding Democratization written by Peter J. Burnell and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comprises 11 contributions exploring issues in the political finances of emerging democracies. The contributors look at funding issues in Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Spain, and the regions of east Asia and east-central Europe. Several contributors also explore what can be learned from the history of political finance in the established democracies of western Europe and North America. Of interest to students of political parties, electoral politics and democratization studies, as well as researchers and specialist observers of the countries and systems covered. Distributed by St. Martin's Press. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Democracy and Leadership written by Irving Babbitt and published by Boston ; New York : Houghton Mifflin. This book was released on 1924 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Moral Foundation of Democracy written by John H. Hallowell and published by Amagi Books. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hallowell makes a significant argument in favour of the importance of moral values in the orderly functioning of modern democracies. Hallowell begins with a survey of the role that classical liberalism and faith in man as a reasonable, moral, and spiritual actor played in the emergence of democratic self-government. He sharply criticises positivist thought and moral relativism as direct challenges to the notion that transcendent truths guide individuals in their actions and influence how people participate in a democratic society. Hallowell reminds us that at its core, a well-functioning democracy must be based on a fundamental respect for the dignity of the individual.
Download or read book Democracy Vouchers written by Tom Latkowski and published by Democracy Policy Network Books. This book was released on 2021-07-26 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From city halls to the halls of Congress, big money dominates American politics. Despite widespread support for reform, even basic attempts to address the problem have been defeated. As a result, American politics has gotten stuck, with even popular reforms like raising the minimum wage, mitigating climate change, and preventing gun violence seeming impossible. A bold new plan being piloted right now could provide a way forward. The idea is simple: The government gives everyone “democracy vouchers” that they can donate to candidates of their choice. If candidates opt-in, they can accept and redeem vouchers for public money to fund their campaign. In Democracy Vouchers, Tom Latkowski shares everything you need to know to start championing this transformative campaign finance system in your city and state.
Download or read book Democracy in Deficit written by James M. Buchanan and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy in Deficit is one of the early comprehensive attempts to apply the basic principles of public-choice analysis to macroeconomic theory and policy. According to Robert D. Tollison in the foreword, "The central purpose of the book was to examine the simple precepts of Keynesian economics through the lens of public-choice theory. The basic discovery was that Keynesian economics had a bias toward deficits in terms of political self-interest.” Democracy in Deficit opened the door for much of the current work on political business cycles and the incorporation of public-choice considerations into macroeconomic theory. Even in the area of monetarism, Buchanan’s landmark work has greatly influenced the sway of contemporary theorists away from the nearly universally held belief of Keynesian theory. Democracy in Deficit contributes greatly to Buchanan’s lifelong fiscal and monetary rules to guide long-term policy in macroeconomics. The book serves to bolster Buchanan’s central beliefs in the necessity of a balanced-budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution and in monetary rules rather than central bank discretion. The book is co-authored with Richard Wagner, a respected colleague of Buchanan, whom Buchanan recognized as helping to keep the book free of polemics and on target with its central purpose of applying the elementary theory of public choice. James M. Buchanan is an eminent economist who won the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1986 and is considered one of the greatest scholars of liberty in the twentieth century. The entire series will include: Volume 1: The Logical Foundations of Constitutional Liberty Volume 2: Public Principles of Public Debt Volume 3: The Calculus of Consent Volume 4: Public Finance in Democratic Process Volume 5: The Demand and Supply of Public Goods Volume 6: Cost and Choice Volume 7: The Limits of Liberty Volume 8: Democracy in Deficit Volume 9: The Power to Tax Volume 10: The Reason of Rules Volume 11: Politics by Principle, Not Interest Volume 12: Economic Inquiry and Its Logic Volume 13: Politics as Public Choice Volume 14: Debt and Taxes Volume 15: Externalities and Public Expenditure Theory Volume 16: Choice, Contract, and Constitutions Volume 17: Moral Science and Moral Order Volume 18: Federalism, Liberty, and the Law Volume 19: Ideas, Persons, and Events Volume 20: Indexes
Download or read book Strengthening democracy written by Hayden Sir Phillips and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-03-15 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This review of the funding of political parties has eight principal recommendations: the status quo, with no caps on donations, is unsustainable therefore donations to parties should be limited; there should be measures to prevent breaches to the new regulations; expenditure in general election campaigns should be reduced; controls on expenditure by third parties should be strengthened; there may be an increase in public funding of political parties; this funding should be linked to a measure of public support and should encourage democratic engagement; the public should have better information on the funding of political parties; the Electoral Commission should have the necessary powers to regulate the new funding settlement.
