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.
