StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Campaign Finance Reforms - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
More of campaign finance reforms are really necessary for the American democracy. They help reduces the role of money in the political system within the nation. The write of the paper "Campaign Finance Reforms" discusses the need of campaign finance reforms…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER98.5% of users find it useful
Campaign Finance Reforms
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Campaign Finance Reforms"

of the History and Political Science of the Concerned 26 March Campaign Finance Reforms More of campaign finance reforms are really necessary for the American democracy. Campaign Finance reforms help reduces the role of money in the political system within the nation. Hence, campaign finance reforms are must because they are the only way to assure that the country has elections that are free and fair and the political system in the country do not gets manipulated by vested interests. The United States of America has a political system in which the political contestants finance their political campaigns with their money and the money that is contributed or collected by their supporters.

Campaign finance reforms have always been an aspect of the American democracy that has generated much public reaction. In the year 1971 the US Congress brought into existence the Federal Election Campaign Act (Schier 128). The purpose of this Act was to make campaign finance transparent. This was followed by a prolonged period of silence and restraint in this area. In the year 2002 the need for introducing reforms in campaign finance surfaced again. This led to the coming into existence of Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (Nielsen 43).

This Act assured that the private donors are not able to donate such money to the political parties and political contestants that is not legally regulated by the Federal Election Commission. This was indeed a big step towards reforming campaign finance. Still, there were some aspects of this reform that happened to be controversial in a legal context (Nielsen 43). This led to a Supreme Court ruling in the year 2010 in the famous Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission case, which declared this act to be unconstitutional (Nielsen 59).

This Supreme Court verdict once again increased the role played by the corporate money in the American democracy. Thereby this verdict has generated much public disapproval. This has indeed increased the need for more campaign finance reforms. It is a known fact that collecting campaign finance is a task that takes much time and attention of the Congress men. This diverts their attention from the real issues faced by the country. The politicians are greatly dependent on the private donors for campaign finance.

Thereby, this increases the clout of the corporate and private donors in the American political system (Schier 41). It is plain commonsense that the need for campaign finance makes the political contestants dependent on corporate donors. This increases the power of the corporate donors to make the political contestants follow their political agenda, once they come into power (Nielsen 160). Thereby, there is a great need for more campaign finance reforms. There is a need to make campaign donations more transparent.

In the current times advertising and PR play a big role in political campaigning. Hence, the political contestants who can have more campaign finance are more likely to generate much public interest. This sidelines the political contestants who have true leadership abilities, but less of the campaign finance. Unregulated campaign finance could manipulate the system at many levels. It could subvert the political system by manipulating it with the help of money. Big money could help those candidates succeed that are more favorable towards the corporate intentions (Cillizza 1).

There are available facts to prove this. For instance, as per a research conducted by Center of public integrity, the corporate donors donated contributed large sums of money to many social organizations and bodies capable of influencing political campaigns (Cillizza 1). This shows that the corporations can influence elections with the help of money. If one thinks of the future, the campaign finance reforms could be expected to go slow. Such reforms will be opposed by the corporate donors. Besides, a section of the politicians could also be expected to oppose campaign finance reforms.

Still, effective campaign finance reforms are necessary to make the political campaigning in the nation more people oriented and democratic. It is the time to rescue the political campaigning from the influence of big money. If a major aspect of the democracy in the nation that is electioneering is left vulnerable to big money, it could readily lead to unwanted and evil consequences. Hence, campaign finance reforms are the need of the hour. Works Cited Cillizza, Chris. “Here’s 185 Million Reasons Campaign Finance Reform Hasn’t Worked”.

The Washington Post 17 January 2014. Web. 26 March 2014. Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis. Ground Wars. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012. Print. Schier, Steven E. You Call this an Election? America’s Peculiar Democracy. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003. Print.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Campaign Finance Reforms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words”, n.d.)
Campaign Finance Reforms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/history/1635253-campaign-finance-reform
(Campaign Finance Reforms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words)
Campaign Finance Reforms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words. https://studentshare.org/history/1635253-campaign-finance-reform.
“Campaign Finance Reforms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/history/1635253-campaign-finance-reform.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Campaign Finance Reforms

What Led to the Deterioration of Congress Legislative and Oversight Processes

The paper "What Led to the Deterioration of Congress' Legislative and Oversight Processes" discusses that the founding fathers of the nation had it in their mind to ensure that no single government authority could overstep its mandate and exploit the citizenry.... hellip; The founding fathers made interrelated checks and balances mechanisms that permeated the entire governance of the US....
4 Pages (1000 words) Assignment

Current to American Policits

Arguing the same, Wagner (2005) contends that it is precisely because campaign finance has completely undermined the one person, one vote,' principle and has displaced the issues, that Campaign Finance Reforms were introduced.... Instead of abiding by the limits established by Campaign Finance Reforms, however, candidates have found a way around them, knowing the money will, ultimately, determine the fate of their political ambitions.... Money determines the outcome, irrespective of Campaign Finance Reforms....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Campaign Finance Reform

In 2002, the Bipartisan Campaign campaign finance Reform campaign finance has become an important issue because of the level at which many corporations were directly contributing to campaigns.... In 2002, the Bipartisan campaign finance Reform Act was passed, banning all use of “soft money.... The BCFR was a big step towards campaign finance reform.... It will depend on the full extent of the 2008 election cycle to determine the extent to which this new ruling will affect campaign finance reform....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Briefing paper: Corporate Culture, Image, Identity, Reputation

Therefore, Campaign Finance Reforms at other organizations have been exaggerated.... Consequently, this has resulted in pervasive and widespread misconception about the likely benefits and costs of organizational reform proposals for campaign finance.... Thus, we have a strong belief that the recent reforms in campaign finance aimed at business organizations are ill informed.... With increased monitoring of campaign donations has come a question regarding the true nature of campaign donations....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Regulation of the Campaign Financing and General Laws

The state could also drop campaign finance.... This paper focuses on the proposed reforms to campaign financing in the state of Massachusetts.... The campaign funding is under the General laws Part I - Administration of the state on Title VIII- Elections, chapter 55- Disclosure and regulation of campaign expenditure and contributions, of Massachusetts's laws.... hellip; The main intent as to why the new law will seek to regulate the campaign contributions as well as expenditure is that there is a potential for a candidate to pursue personal interests, at the expense of the donors and public good....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Nevada week in Review

The existing Campaign Finance Reforms stipulate that the government provide a specified amount of money to aid in the campaign process.... There are various key factors that affect the politics of the United States of America that tend to determine which candidates are suitable for various seats and which are worth choosing....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Political Campaigns

Three main reforms suggested include voting with dollars, clean elections, and matching funds.... The paper 'Political Campaigns' focuses on campaign contributions which vary greatly across the country, and so does the influence they have.... Some argue that those with the means of supporting their campaign trails have perpetuated the current system, hence the need to look for different ways of maintaining the campaigns systems.... Special interests, therefore, take the first chance, and that makes it difficult to retain the clarity of the legislator's campaign trail....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Goals, Methods and Results of Gandhi's Campaigns

To begin with was the Champaran campaign, 1917.... In the paper “Goals, Methods and Results of Gandhi's Campaigns,” the author discusses traditional civil disobedience.... Socrates, Gandhi, and King believed in the need to obey a higher authority and be cleansed of self-interestedness....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us