Democracy by the People
Reforming Campaign Finance in America

Introduces citizens to solutions for reforming the American campaign finance system.

Eugene D. Mazo (Edited by), Timothy K. Kuhner (Edited by)

9781316630679, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 May 2019

503 pages, 1 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.1 x 2.8 cm, 0.64 kg

'Democracy by the People is insightful, innovative, and timely. With the Supreme Court unlikely to reverse course on campaign finance law anytime soon, this edited volume offers thought-provoking proposals that could significantly curtail the role of money in politics even without constitutional change. The analyses are lucid, novel, and present creative ideas for reforming campaign finance in America.' Adam Winkler, University of California, Los Angeles and author of We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights

Thanks to a series of recent US Supreme Court decisions, corporations can now spend unlimited sums to influence elections, Super PACs and dark money groups are flourishing, and wealthy individuals and special interests increasingly dominate American politics. Despite the overwhelming support of Americans to fix this broken system, serious efforts at reform have languished. Campaign finance is a highly intricate and complex area of the law, and the current system favors the incumbent politicians who oversee it. This illuminating book takes these hard realities as a starting point and offers realistic solutions to reform campaign finance. With contributions from more than a dozen leading scholars of election law, it should be read by anyone interested in reclaiming the promise of American democracy.

Introduction: democracy by the wealthy: campaign finance reform as the issue of our time Timothy K. Kuhner and Eugene D. Mazo
Part I. Defining the Problem: 1. The third coming of American plutocracy: what campaign finance reformers are up against Timothy K. Kuhner
2. Liberty, equality, bribery, and self-government: reframing the campaign finance debate Deborah Hellman
3. Aligning campaign finance law Nicholas Stephanopoulos
Part II. Proposed Solutions: 4. Reforming campaign finance reform: the future of public funding Richard Briffault
5. Raising all of our voices for democracy: a hybrid public funding proposal Adam Lioz
6. Reorienting disclosure debates in a post-Citizens United world Katherine Shaw
7. Beyond repair: FEC reform and deadlock deference Daniel P. Tokaji
8. The People's Pledge: campaign finance reform without legal reform Ganesh Sitaraman
9. Super PAC insurance: a private sector solution to reform campaign finance Nick Warshaw
10. Constraining and channeling corporate political power in Trump's America Kent Greenfield
11. Reforming lobbying Maggie McKinley
12. Regulating campaign finance through legislative recusal rules Eugene D. Mazo
13. Contributions and corruption: restoring aggregate limits in the States Michael D. Gilbert
14. Developing better empirical evidence for future campaign finance cases Brent Ferguson and Chisun Lee
15. Fixing the Supreme Court's mistake: the case for the twenty-eighth Amendment Ronald A. Fein
Part III. Inspiration from Abroad: 16. The repudiation of Buckley v. Valeo K. D. Ewing
17. Equal participation and campaign finance Yasmin Dawood
18. Political finance and political equality: lessons from Europe Óscar Sánchez Muñoz.

Subject Areas: Constitutional & administrative law [LND], Public international law [LBB], Public finance [KFFD], Politics & government [JP], Social welfare & social services [JKS], History of ideas [JFCX]