Overview

Many have argued that soft money and special interests are destroying the American electoral system. And yet the clarion call for campaign finance reform only touches on the more general belief that money and economic power have a disastrous impact on both free expression and American democracy. The nation's primary sources of communication, the argument goes, are increasingly controlled by vast corporate empires whose primary, or even exclusive motive is the maximization of profit. And these conglomerates should simply not be granted the same constitutional protection as, say, an individual protester. And yet neither the expenditure of money for expressive purposes nor an underlying motive of profit maximization detracts from the values fostered by such activity, claims Martin H. Redish. In fact, given the modern economic realities that dictate that effective expression virtually requires the expenditure of capital, any restriction of such capital for expressive purposes will necessarily reduce the sum total of available expression. Further, Redish here illustrates, the underlying motive of those who wish to restrict corporate expression is disagreement with the nature of the views they express. Confronting head-on one of the sacred cows of American reformist politics, Martin H. Redish here once again lives up to his reputation as one of America's most original and counterintuitive legal minds.

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9780814775387

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Reviews

A very readable book containing the best arguments thus far opposing campaign finance reform. -- Choice Martin Redish's accomplishment is that he not only has written a strong critique of te proposals to extend governmental regulation of free speech, but he has also given First Amendment defenders a base from which to attack existing restrictions on communication. Money Talks illustrates and upholds why the Founders prohibited Congress from making any law thta abridges the freedom of speech. --Regulation

(<p> Demonstrates with clarity and simplicity why the First Amendment trumps government restrictions on campaign finance as well as corporate and commercial speech. )-(), ()

<p>Aa cornucopia of informed and detailed insight on the politics of identity. [...] Sch pflin's writing is lively and vigorous, if abrasive. Ethnicity, identity, nationalism and nationhood are intriguing topics for study and certainly inform European politics today. Sch pflin has provided a fascinating book that deals with these issues in a thought-provoking, original and insightful manner. It is a great piece of erudite scholarship, which one will return totime and again. - Times Higher Educational Supplement ,

<p> Brilliant. . . . must reading for legislators, editorial writers and the general public . . . rigorous and persuasive.

Author Information

The author of numerous books and for a quarter century one of the country's most provocative commentators on free speech issues, Martin H. Redish is the Louis and Harriet Professor of Law and Public Policy at Northwestern University School of Law.

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