Campaign Finance-The Problems and Consequences of Reform

Virtually all democracies struggle with the question of how to finance election campaigns. Although politicians often propose campaign finance reforms as a means of gaining short-term advantage over their opponents, campaign finance laws can be evaluated with reference to broader democratic goals, including the prevention of corruption, encouraging competitive elections and voter choice, enabling citizens and citizen groups to provide information to politicians, and promoting political and economic equality. The articles in this volume describe patterns in the financing of different types of campaigns in the United States and in other democracies, with particular attention to how campaign finance law relates to democratic values.