The Legal and Political Implications of Campaign Finance Reform
Date
2000
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Haverford College. Department of Political Science
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
Today's campaign finance regime is at best a foundering institution, at worst a system on the verge of complete meltdown. The crux of the problem is the time-honored American tradition of checks and balances--in this case, between the legislative branch and the judicial branch. Congress enacted the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA), as well as its more important amendments in 1974, with the express purpose of preventing corruption, an immediate consequence of Watergate. The Supreme Court then struck down key provisions (expenditure limits) of the Act as impermissible under the First Amendment, while upholding others (contribution limits), the key issue being to what extent spending and/or contributing money for political purposes is or is not free speech. The resultant system of campaign finance will be shown to be entirely inadequate to the purported goal of a sound democracy, unless that goal includes an apathetic public and the sale of elections and legislative access to the highest bidder(s).