Reimagining Rights and Responsibilities in the United States: Money in Politics

Abstract

As Yogi Berra once said, “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.” Nothing could be truer when it comes to money in American politics. In the 2000 election, candidates and outside groups spent a combined 3 billion dollars on the presidential and congressional races. Not two decades later, in 2016, the amount spent more than doubled to a combined 6.5 billion dollars. For 2020, forecasters project that the total amount spent on political advertising alone will reach 10 billion dollars. There’s a simple reason for this exponential rise in political expenditures: the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the First Amendment to preclude the regulation of many aspects of campaign finance. That decision in 1976 first opened the floodgates of contributions to political campaigns. In this issue of the Reimagining Rights and Responsibilities in the U.S. paper series, the authors outline how the bipartisan use of money in politics undermines the democratic process.