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 The Press and the Decline of Democracy written by Robert G. Picard and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1985-12-06 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author discusses the role of economic concentration in limiting public access to information and reducing opportunities for public discourse. Picard examines the government policies that have contributed to the erosion of democratic participation and have permitted the growth of large commercial press entities, unobstructed by anti-trust provisions. He relates recent public policy responses to this problem to democratic socialist ideology and develops a social-democratic theory of the press which draws upon ideas and policies found throughout the Western world. Picard provides a democratic framework for understanding the changing nature of media economics and state-press relations and offers proposals for achieving both a democratically functioning press and broader popular participation.
Download or read book The Subsidy Question and the Democratic Party written by Henry George and published by . This book was released on 1871 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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 Submerged State written by Suzanne Mettler and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-08-31 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Keep your government hands off my Medicare!” Such comments spotlight a central question animating Suzanne Mettler’s provocative and timely book: why are many Americans unaware of government social benefits and so hostile to them in principle, even though they receive them? The Obama administration has been roundly criticized for its inability to convey how much it has accomplished for ordinary citizens. Mettler argues that this difficulty is not merely a failure of communication; rather it is endemic to the formidable presence of the “submerged state.” In recent decades, federal policymakers have increasingly shunned the outright disbursing of benefits to individuals and families and favored instead less visible and more indirect incentives and subsidies, from tax breaks to payments for services to private companies. These submerged policies, Mettler shows, obscure the role of government and exaggerate that of the market. As a result, citizens are unaware not only of the benefits they receive, but of the massive advantages given to powerful interests, such as insurance companies and the financial industry. Neither do they realize that the policies of the submerged state shower their largest benefits on the most affluent Americans, exacerbating inequality. Mettler analyzes three Obama reforms—student aid, tax relief, and health care—to reveal the submerged state and its consequences, demonstrating how structurally difficult it is to enact policy reforms and even to obtain public recognition for achieving them. She concludes with recommendations for reform to help make hidden policies more visible and governance more comprehensible to all Americans. The sad truth is that many American citizens do not know how major social programs work—or even whether they benefit from them. Suzanne Mettler’s important new book will bring government policies back to the surface and encourage citizens to reclaim their voice in the political process.
Download or read book Subsidizing Campaigns written by Jewel Bellush and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Submerged State written by Suzanne Mettler and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-10 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades, federal policymakers have increasingly shunned the outright disbursing of benefits to individuals and families and favored instead less visible and more indirect incentives and subsidies, from tax breaks to payments for services to private companies. These submerged policies obscure the role of government and exaggerate that of the market. As a result, citizens are unaware not only of the benefits they receive, but of the massive advantages given to powerful interests, such as insurance companies and the financial industry. Neither do they realize that the policies of the submerged state shower their largest benefits on the most affluent Americans, exacerbating inequality. The author analyzes three Obama reforms: student aid, tax relief, and health care; to reveal the submerged state and its consequences, demonstrating how structurally difficult it is to enact policy reforms and even to obtain public recognition for achieving them. She concludes with recommendations for reform to help make hidden policies more visible and governance more comprehensible to all Americans.
Download or read book Government Subsidies written by Mr.Benedict J. Clements and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1995-09-01 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper addresses the problems of defining and measuring government subsidies, examines why and how government subsidies are used as a fiscal policy tool, assesses their economic effects, appraises international empirical evidence on government subsidies, and offers options for their reform. Recent international trends in government subsidy expenditure are analyzed for the 16-year period from 1975 to 1990, using general government subsidy data for 60 countries from the System of National Accounts (SNA) and central government expenditure on subsidies and other current transfers for 68 countries from Government Finance Statistics (GFS). The paper reviews major policy options for subsidy reform, focusing on ways to improve the cost-effectiveness of subsidy programs.
Download or read book Money Time Politics written by Ronald Frederick King and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the end of World War II, the American federal government has actively supported regressive supply side tax subsidies for businesses in order to stimulate capital investment. In this book Ronald F. King traces U.S. taxation politics during the last thirty years, arguing that politicians have a more long-term economic perspective than is usually assumed, and that Democrats as well as Republicans promote tax breaks for business investment not as a concession to elite business power but as a technical precondition believed to be essential for national prosperity and social harmony.
Download or read book The Government We Deserve written by C. Eugene Steuerle and published by The Urban Insitute. This book was released on 1998 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Takes a visionary look at what it will take to create a constructive national dialog on political choices that the next decade will bring. Explores a sweeping range of concerns and describes eight proposals that would return ownership of the government to the American majority, with chapters on the government's changing capacity to respond, the changing political process, the role of the public sector, and the changing shape of US federalism. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Tax funded Politics written by James T. Bennett and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-12-02 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The past two decades have seen the growth of well-coordinated networks of political activists who have managed to obtain hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars for political lobbying. Although federal regulations prohibit such activities, loopholes in the law allow these monies to be masked as private resources. State and federal taxpayers, monies fund the lobbying efforts of private advocacy groups on both the political left and the right.In Tax-Funded Politics, James Bennett argues that governmental agencies, rather than combating theses abuses, aid and abet them in order to increase their own size and scope. Drawing on a broad range of examples, Bennett shows how the ideals of the nation's Founding Fathers have been subverted by molding and manipulating the will of the people through government-orchestrated propaganda. Government agencies, far from being indifferent to self-aggrandizement and the consolidation of wealth and power, are concerned with their own self-interest, whether it is enhancing their budget or supporting a particular political agenda. Likewise, nonprofit entities claim to operate solely in the ""public interest"" but also engage in political advocacy and lobbying activities. But when charities do the lobbying, blatant self-interest is wrapped in the halo of the ""public interest.""Tax-Funded Politics exposes dozens of mutually beneficial arrangements between government and charities involving hundreds of millions of dollars. It then explores their implications. Groups that receive government funds are loath to criticize failed government programs and are advocates for the expansion of the agencies that provide their support. Even charities learn not to bite the hand that feeds them. Although the vast majority of the funds are directed to nonprofit groups on the left of the political spectrum, so-called conservative organizations have also sought and received taxpayers' funds, despite promise to get g"
Download or read book The Subsidy Question and the Democratic Party written by Henry George and published by . This book was released on 187? with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book State Aid for Newspapers written by Paul Murschetz and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2014-01-25 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since newspaper companies first turned to their governments for support in the 1950s, print media has been supported by state aid in many parts of the world. Today, the principles and practicalities of these subsidies have been called into question, endangering the secure funding of expensive high-quality press output. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of today’s global challenges in the print news media’s struggle for survival. It presents current practices concerning government subsidies to newspapers for political, economic, and socio-cultural purposes against the background of declining readership and revenues, increased inter-media competition, austerity budgets imposed on national economies and shifting audience tastes. Using the insights of theoretical debates in the fields of media economics, media governance, and modern management theory, the book analyses these issues by investigating the power of government subsidies to shape and control newspaper markets. It brings together experts in these fields to combine theory with industry practices, aiming to help all parties involved to understand the complexity of issues and requirements necessary to preserve the social benefits of print media.
Download or read book Saving the News written by Martha Minow and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "As traditional for-profit news media in the United States declines in economic viability and sheer numbers of outlets and staff, what does and what should the constitutional guarantee of freedom of the press mean? The book examines the current news ecosystem in the U.S. and chronicles historical developments in government involvement in shaping the industry. It argues that initiatives by the government and by private-sector actors are not only permitted but called for as transformations in technology, economics, and communications jeopardize the production and distribution of and trust in news and the very existence of local news reporting. It presents ten proposals for change to help preserve the free press essential to our democratic society"--
Download or read book The Federal Subsidy Beast written by Brian J. Finegan and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a very readable, narrative format, "The Federal Subsidy Beast" undertakes an unprecedented examination of federal largesse, exposing the monster that has rendered the body politic powerless. Researched for nine years and exhaustively documented, it is the definitive study of federal subsidy programs stripped of their political cover. The author details the origin, intent and outcome of all significant federal subsidy programs and identifies program characteristics that act to undermine effectiveness, maximize expenditures and insure program immortality. Boasting of mythical budget surpluses, our elected leaders continue to expand subsidy programs despite warnings from the U.S. Comptroller General that existing programs will bankrupt the government. The subsidy beast now consumes 60 percent of the budget and is expected to devour all federal revenues in as little as 25 years. As increasing numbers of Americans have come to realize, national elections have become irrelevant -- federal politicans answer only to the subsidy beast. The final chapter of "The Federal Subsidy Beast" exposes the monster's Achilles' heel and shows how it can be defeated.
Download or read book Global System Change written by Frank Dixon and published by Global System Change. This book was released on 2017-02-16 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We the People (united citizens) are the most powerful force in society. But we abdicate our power and authority when we allow vested interests to divide us into conservatives and liberals. In his Farewell Address, George Washington warned that vested interests would use political parties to divide and disempower the people. This prevents us from working together in our massive areas of common interest, such as using the public wealth to equally and fairly benefit all citizens, establishing true democracy and protecting life support systems. Flawed economic and political systems suppress democracy and concentrate public wealth at the top of society. This book describes how to unite and empower citizens under a We the People movement, end unfair taking of the public welfare through corporate welfare, evolve economic and political systems into sustainable forms, and take back control of our government and destiny. The book also describes the highest impact, most advanced form of corporate responsibility and socially responsible investing, a system change-based approach called Total Corporate Responsibility.
Download or read book Democracy Prevention written by Jason Brownlee and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-06 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy Prevention explains how America's alliance with Egypt has impeded democratic change and reinforced authoritarianism over time.
