This blog has laid out a clear problem with how our political campaigns are financed. The Citizen’s United vs. FEC case will forever mark a turning point in our countries history that made our political system lethally corrupt. However, there is so much wrong with our election systems. The Electoral College, congressional districts, voter suppression, “super-delegates,” and media coverage need to be addressed in order for the United States to have a more perfect union.
It’s important to know how other countries fund their campaigns. The strategies that countries take vary greatly across borders, and America could take some of these systems and apply it to her own elections. First, Australia is facing a very similar problem with their system of financing campaigns. Corporations are free to “exercise speech” and give unlimited amounts of money to a party. However, instead of having to go through a Super PAC, corporations donate to the party, who then apply the funds where it sees fit. This system could never work in our political system because our mainstream parties are big tents and not as uniform as parties in Australia. Jeff Flake, Rand Paul, and Donald Trump all classify as Republicans, but each has very unique policy preferences.
Private fundraising dominates the conversation in Ireland as well, but they throw in a different twist to campaigning. Each party gets free airtime on Ireland’s two public broadcasting stations. Time is allotted based on how many candidates that party has nominated for positions as well as how many seats that party has in parliament at the time. To me, factoring in how many seats a party has in government seems suspicious, but this is a mere blemish compared to having an electoral system that allows the loser of the popular vote to become the President.
The Netherlands has a mix of public and private funds for their elections. For decades, parties were only funded through membership dues. As a fan of closed primaries, I love this idea. Being a part of a party is like being a part of a club, and there are costs to being in that club. However, a decrease of political participation and party membership has led to as much as 15-35 percent of a party’s budget stemming from the government itself. The Dutch also provide parties with free airtime of television, so parties need less money than they would in the United States.
The “most expensive democracy in the world” isn’t the United States, but its Middle Eastern ally, Israel. Despite seeing the same problem with party membership that I described in the Netherlands, Israeli parties spend as much as 90 dollars per voter. Imagine Democrats and Republicans spending 10 billion dollars on the 2016 election.
To me, America is a lot like Penn State. In the Northeast corner of campus, the school’s pride and joy, Beaver Stadium, stands tall for the world to see. Think of American democracy as America’s Beaver Stadium. But sitting right next to Beaver Stadium is East Halls. It’s run down, smelly, ugly, and nobody really wants to spend anymore time then they have to there. Because of this, pretty disgusting things happen there on a regular basis, and residents accept those atrocities as the norm. The electoral system is America’s East Halls.
East Halls is getting a renovation. Our electoral system should get one too.
Source: ^ “SOFT MONEY AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM: Start Your Search!”. eds.b.ebscohost.com. Retrieved 2016-11-20.
This was really interesting to read. We always hear about how our country is a political mess, and we almost idolize other countries and assume that they are more together than we are (how many people threatened to move to Canada after the last election?). It definitely made me feel a little less discouraged about the state of our union, but just because other countries have problems with political funding doesn’t mean we don’t as well.
I love analogies and really loved this one because I think it is such a good representation of the point you were making. There is definitely some fixing that needs to be done, but just like East Halls, it is going to take a while. Similar to how people were so fed up with east Halls that Penn State finally decided to renovate, I think the American people are pretty fed up with the system so hopefully we will see change soon. I enjoyed reading your blogs over the past semester!
This is a great analogy. I understand that the electoral system has been in place for hundreds of years, but it has always been difficult for me to understand its real purpose. The manipulation of the government seems unethical, but it is widely practiced. But, I guess many countries are experiencing these difficulties as well.