Buying the Vote: A History of Campaign Finance Reform

by Robert E. Mutch

Overview

Are corporations citizens? Is political inequality a necessary aspect of a democracy or something that must be stamped out? These are the questions that have been at the heart of the debate surrounding campaign finance reform for nearly half a century. But as Robert E. Mutch demonstrates in this fascinating book, these were not always controversial matters.

The tenets that corporations do not count as citizens, and that self-government functions best by reducing political inequality, were commonly heldup until the early years of the twentieth century, when Congress recognized the strength of these principles by prohibiting corporations from making campaign contributions, passing a disclosure law, and setting limits on campaign expenditures. But conservative opposition began to appear in the 1970s. Well represented on the Supreme Court, opponents of campaign finance reform won decisions granting First Amendment rights to corporations, and declaring the goal of reducing political inequality to be unconstitutional.

Buying the Vote analyzes the rise and decline of campaign finance reform by tracking the evolution of both the ways in which presidential campaigns have been funded since the late nineteenth century. Through close examinations of major Supreme Court decisions, Mutch shows how the Court has fashioned a new and profoundly inegalitarian definition of American democracy. Drawing on rarely studied archival materials on presidential campaign finance funds, Buying the Vote is an illuminating look at politics, money, and power in America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199340002
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2014
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	390
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Robert E. Mutch is an independent scholar who specializes in the history of campaign finance.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter One From Plutocrats to Populists: 1884-1900
Chapter Two The 1904 Election and the First Scandals: 1904-1907
Chapter Three The Beginning of Reform: 1905-1907
Chapter Four The Triumph of Reform: 1908-1911
Chapter Five Big Business Money Remains Dominant: 1912-1928
Chapter Six Organized Labor Becomes Active: 1932-1948
Chapter Seven The Revival of Reform: 1952-1972
Chapter Eight From Buckley to Austin: 1976-1990
Chapter Nine From Reform to Reaction: 1996-Present
Conclusion
Appendix Contributors to Theodore Roosevelt's 1904 Campaign
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

05/12/2014
Campaign finance expert Mutch surveys an incendiary and timely subject with considerable finesse. Taking a historical perspective, he begins with an analysis of the election of 1904 and the individuals contributing to Theodore Roosevelt’s successful bid for the presidency. He surveys campaign financing trends and reform cycles during the 20th century, contending (though too broadly) that Republicans have been the “sole business party since 1896.” He briefly considers Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign innovations, notably how his team used the Internet for fund-raising. Mutch includes detailed commentaries on Supreme Court rulings, focusing on the widely followed and criticized 2010 Citizens United case, the ruling that prohibits the government from restricting corporate and union political expenditures, and vastly widens the power of outside money in the electoral system. Mutch condemns the decision, saying the Court’s “history is fanciful and the logic is ideological.” Given prevailing judicial thought on the First Amendment and rights of corporations, he is pessimistic about the possibilities of containing their influence in future elections. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

2014-06-11
Independent legal scholar Mutch (Campaigns, Congress and Courts: The Making of Federal Campaign Finance Law, 1988) contends that theCitizens United(2010) Supreme Court ruling has reversed more than 100 years of electoral reform and overthrown long-accepted legal definitions of equality, democracy and free speech.The author contributes a broad perspective to the heated controversy provoked by the current Supreme Court and its decision that corporations can use their financial power to influence electoral outcomes—putting corporations on par with individual people. Mutch identifies two cycles of election finance reform: the first beginning around the 1904 election of Theodore Roosevelt and the second, with the 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon. Both, he shows, were driven by outrage over the role of money in politics. In the early 20thcentury, many feared the corrosive effects of large corporate financial contributions as undermining the notions of equality and democracy. Mutch quotes New Hampshire Sen. William Chandler, one of the founders of the Republican Party and co-sponsor of federal legislation to bring financial transparency to the electoral process: “A republic is supposed to be individual government….But when corporations can furnish money to carry elections from corporate treasuries individualism in government is gone.” Over the decades, the fears have prompted only partially successful legislative efforts. After Nixon, two 1970s cases—Buckley v. ValeoandFirst National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti—established money as a protected equivalent of human speech and permitted direct corporate funding of elections.“[T]racking changes in where campaign funds actually come from,” writes Mutch, “reveals that…today's system differs only in degree from the Gilded Age system the first reformers tried to uproot.”An excellent discussion of election finance reform for policymakers and political watchers—though the audience may not include many general readers.

Kirkus Reviews

"[A] marvelously rich history with bleak policy conclusions."—Tulsa Law Review

"Campaign finance expert Mutch surveys an incendiary and timeless subject with considerable finesse." —Publishers Weekly

"[Mutch] contributes a broad perspective to the heated controversy provoked by the current Supreme Court and its decision that corporations can use their financial power to influence electoral outcomes-putting corporations on par with individual people... An excellent discussion of election finance reform." —Kirkus Reviews

"Mutch's book supplies the crucial context that is missing in today's campaign finance debate." —American Constitution Society for Law and Policy Blog

"Buying the Vote examines the evolution of the financing of presidential elections, the adoption and impact of federal campaign-finance laws, and the Supreme Court's campaign-finance cases... Mutch is surely correct that the Court's decisions, rooted in a controversial legal theory, 'have had a substantial effect on political reality' and have sharply narrowed the range of possible reforms." -Journal of Interdisciplinary History

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