Overview

The issues surrounding money in American elections are continually controversial. How much does money affect the outcome of elections? Do those who help finance candidates exert undue influence in the making of public policy? In this landmark book, one of America's most distinguished political scientists explores the dynamics and consequences of campaign finance in America and explodes many myths about this widely debated subject. Frank J. Sorauf provides balanced and informative commentary on such critical issues in campaign financing as: - the growing problems of regulating American campaign finance under the post-Watergate legislation of 1974; - the forces that affect the supply of money available for campaigning, from economic conditions to the competitiveness of elections; - the increasing power of incumbent candidates in the two-way exchange between candidates and contributors; - political learning and the search for ways to avoid the laws on campaign finance; - the myths and realities about the role and influence of PACs; - the vanishing funds for public funding of the presidential campaigns; - the new middlemen and brokers (e.g., the case of Charles Keating); - the major options for reform: private versus public funding; - the political deadlock over reform: parties, public opinion, and the interests of incumbents; - the possibility of new levels of competition and spending in 1992. Sorauf argues that the American system of campaign financing has become increasingly stable and institutionalized during the last sixteen years, and that the major players in the system-PACs, individual fund-raisers, party committees, and incumbent candidates-now behave in fairly predictable ways. His book is a fresh and persuasive account of the importance and the limits of money as a base of political influence in the United States.

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9780300059328

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Reviews

A rigorously revisionist, if somewhat detached, view of the supporting role money has played in American political campaigns since Watergate-instigated modification of the electoral regulatory regime. Drawing on the wealth of data available from the Federal Election Commission, Sorauf (Political Science/Univ. of Minnesota) challenges a considerable body of conventional wisdom. Despite a post-1974 proliferation of PACs, for example, he notes that the amount of money available to congressional candidates peaked during the mid-1980's and has since stabilized. Nor does the author find any credible evidence that the status quo puts Democrats at a disadvantage vis-a-vis their presumptively more affluent Republican counterparts. Indeed, Sorauf concludes, the US system of campaign finance has become almost institutionalized, with fund-raisers, office-seekers, and other major players behaving in largely predictable fashion. Equally startling is his determination that incumbents from both parties had been winning reelection at rates above 90% for decades before PACs and fat-cat contributors became burning issues. The divergence between these political realities and public perceptions, Sorauf submits, is at least partially attributable to the vested interest in reform of such organizations as Common Cause and the League of Women Voters. Along similar lines, the author examines the electorate's ambivalence about using public funds to finance political campaigns, and the illogic of expecting elected lawmakers to amend a statutory order that to a great extent sustains them. While Sorauf offers no personal agenda, he observes that a system stalemated on vital policy issues may find it especially difficult to change the ways in which electoral campaigns are underwritten. An illuminating report on an aspect of US politics that seems fated to generate more heat than light. The evenhanded text includes an abundance of tabular material - not seen. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Frank J. Sorauf, Regents’ Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, is the author of many books and articles.

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