About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

486 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 9 (1986)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0486 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE Elections to federal office are central to our constitutional form of government, and money has become central to those elections. Campaign finance regulation is therefore an important issue of political and social science. While agreement can easily be reached on the foregoing propositions, it is exceedingly difficult to find consensus on any other aspect of the subject. Some argue on constitutional and policy grounds that the government should not regulate campaign finance at all, or should only prohibit grossly antidemocratic behavior such as bribery. Others argue that broad campaign finance regulation is necessary to protect the electoral system from actual and apparent corruption and to restore the electorate's confidence in the integrity of elected officials. Supporters of campaign finance regulation often differ widely, however, on the appropriate means for achieving objectives they hold in common. The debate about campaign finance regulation is not conducted solely at lofty legal and political science levels. The issue is redolent of realpolitik. Incumbent officeholders consider the crucial effect of legislative changes on their relative strength vis-a-vis challengers. Democrats and Republicans consider how regulatory changes might affect their relative strength. Party officials worry about the distribution of power between them and the party's candidates. Interest groups worry about access to officeholders. Business worries about labor and vice versa. The debate about campaign finance regulation is dominated by legal considera- tions as well. The First Amendment, of course, protects freedom of speech and association from unjustified governmental intrusion. This protection has its most vital application in the context of federal elections, but all campaign finance regulation affects speech and association in federal campaigns. This produces an inexorable tension between First Amendment values and campaign finance regulations, which the courts have not been successful in resolving in a consistent manner. This volume presents articles on campaign finance regulation by a distinguished and diverse group of authors. They include practicing politicians, a lobbyist, a judge, an academic, a journalist, and lawyers who practice in the field. The authors attack the issues at all levels-theoretical, practical, and legal-and from widely disparate perspectives. The first article is by David Adamany, now the chancellor of Wayne State University, who has published widely on the subject of campaign finance. His article, entitled The New Faces of American Politics, analyzes the impact of campaign finance regulation on American politics and, in particular, on the major parties and political action committees (PACs). Mr. Adamany finds that American politics have become more professionalized, bureaucratized, centralized, and nationalized and that financial constituencies have gained strength at the expense of voting constituencies. Mr. Adamany attributes these changes to factors other than campaign finance laws, however. His fact-filled article sets the stage for the ensuing articles. 9

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most