2000, Campaign Finance and Distribtive Justice

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Campaign Finance and Distribtive Justice from Dick's Guide to World History and Political Ethics

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The Campaign Finance Approach used in the United State must be changed to make it more compatible with concepts of ethical distributive justice.

Campaign financing, today, allows groups and individuals with large amounts of money to secretly spend that money to elect their favorite candidates. Distributive justice deals with the issue of providing fair access to, and availabilty of, resources to individuals. This discussion uses utiltarian felific calculus, Amnesty International's criteria for good government and The United Nations criteria for human development to show, objectively, that American citizens are being damaged by the campaign financing approaches of America's two dominant political parties. The paper also examines xnumber of other approaches to campaign finances and concludes that xproposition2 is the best way to finance campaigns for public office.

The United State's approach to campaign financing is not compatible with any reasonable interpretation of any ethical distributive justice (access and availability) of the United State's resources to its individuals.

John Rawls, sometimes thought of as the father of this distributive justice concept, felt there were two principles to govern.

"(1) Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all.

(2) Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both:

(a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged, consistent with the just savings principle, and

(b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity." (Rawls 1971, p.302. Website: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-distributive/

Certainly today's methods of campaign financing are consistent with the first clause of Rawl's first principle, but inconsistent with the second clause The Supreme Court has decided (Buckley v. Valeo, Nixon v Shrink) that individuals and groups must be limited to the amount they may contribute to political candidates, but there is to be no limit on how much of an indiviudal or group may spend to support a candidate. Rich people, poor people and large special interest groups -- from unions to corporations -- are free to spend as much money as they want to further a candidate's election -- just as long as they do not actually donate the money to the candidate. Since all have this equal basic liberty, Rawls would be happy that the first clause of his first principle was met.

Unfortunately, under today's campaign financing approaches basic liberties (of those with lots of money) are not compatible with a similar system of liberty for all, most of whom do not have the ability to spend lots of money for campaigning. Thus, in reviewing various approaches to campaign financing. it becomes necessary to come up with a campaign finance approach that is compatible with a ... system of liberty for all, rich and poor. Today's United State's campaign finance approach can not be considered an appropriate approach for a nation intesetd in distribitive justice. It does not provide fair access to, and availabilty of, political resources to individuals. Even politicians will readily admit that they give much greater access to the views of paying contributors than average citizens.

The United State's approach to campaign financing should be xproposition2 which is ,ost compatible with ethical distributive justice (access and availability) of the United State's resources to its individuals.

Since any analysis of this issue will involve issues of freedom, rights and fairness, it is necessary to define these issues at the outset. For this paper, such terms will all be interpreted using the United Nations and Amensty International's criterai in Appendix A and B. Fairness, in this paper, will be used, to define the best outcome from a quantifiable (felific calculus) method of determining that something achieves the most benefit for the most people.

Since the best campaign financing approach will meet Rawls first principle and maximize the benefit for most Americans, this paper maintains the sanctity of Rawls First Principle, but rearranges the second principle along Utilitarian lines. Whatever method of campaign financing is developed it must be shown to be most likely to provide the most benefit to most people. This concept is much easier to discuss objectively than the Rawl concept of "fairness" which, for practical application, requires the development of a quantifiable appproach to determine "fairness."

While substituting a Utiliatrian approach to Rawl's concept of fairness, any approach to campaign financing will still need to meet both conditions of Rawl's second principle. Since his second principle involves the concept of a just saving principle, it is useful to note his concept of the just savings principle. "In his monumental contribution to moral philosophy, A Theory of Justice, John Rawls offers a helpful proposal. "Just savings," he writes, entails that "each generation must . . . preserve the gains of culture and civilization, . . . maintain intact those just institutions that have been established . ..[and] put aside in each period of time a suitable amount of real capital accumulation."POSTERITY AND THE "STRAINS OF COMMITMENT"By Ernest Partridge,University of California, Riverside, website: http://www.igc.org/gadfly/papers/strains.htm

Proposals for campaign finance reform to be considered.

1. Proposal meets the first principle, 2. Proposal meets first second principle, 3. Proposal meets second second principle, R. Utilitarian Rankings from work sheets

Proposal Descritpion 1 2 3 R

Continue today's approach	No limit on how much of an indiviudal or group may spend to support a candidate. Source:
eliminate soft money	Political party soft money is those funds raised by the national parties from sources and in amounts otherwise prohibited in federal elections by the FECA. In accordance with the applicable state law, it is then largely transferred to state and local political parties for grassroots and party-building activities, overhead expenses, and issue ads. Source: THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR SCIENCE AND THE ENVIRONMENT, website: http://www.cnie.org/nle/rsk-35.html
Gore's election year 2000 proposal "Democracy Endowment"	Individuals, corporations, and unions to contribute to a non-partisan trust used to help fund any Congressional candidate who would agree to spending limits. Source: Common Cause News, Wednesday, March 27, 2000 at http://www.commoncause.org/publications/march00/032700.htm
Bush's election year 2000 proposal	Leaves in place the kind of soft money that played such a big role in the campaign finance scandals of 1996. Silent on the subject of soft money spilling into federal elections through state party committees. Bush's "Paycheck protection" act is completely silent on the question of whether shareholders would be required to give their permission before corporate funds are spent on political activities anonymous groups could continue to run campaign ads masquerading as "issue discussion," using money that would be completely illegal if given to candidates directly. Source: Common Cause News, Tuesday, February 15, 2000, website: http://www.commoncause.org/publications/feb00/0211000.htm
McCain-Feingold bill	Prohibits candidates and national political parties from raising soft money, and by prohibiting state political parties from spending soft money on activities which affect federal elections. Permits workers in union shops who pay agency fees in lieu of union dues to obtain a refund of the portion of those fees that are used for political purposes.
Shays-Meehan Campaign Reform Bill	Ban on the use of soft money to influence federal elections at both the national and state party levels. Bans national parties from raising or spending soft money. The bill bans federal officeholders and candidates from raising or spending soft money on federal campaigns. And the bill bans state parties from spending soft money on activities that affect federal elections, such as ads that refer to a federal candidate and get-out-the-vote activities in federal election years. Source: Common Cause News, May 6, 1998, website: http://www.commoncause.org/publications/050698_letter.htm

⁽⁴⁾ By "capital," Rawls means "not only factories and machines, and so on, but also the knowledge and culture, as well as the techniques and skills, that make possible just institutions and the fair values of liberty."⁽⁵⁾ This is an important qualification, since it indicates that our "savings" are not simply of "consumables" which are forgone today to be "used" tomorrow. For unlike depletable resources, the intellectual and cultural "capital" to which Rawls refers become more valuable to the future, the more they are used with advantage by the present generation. As we shall see, this is a crucial consideration as we face 'the motivation problem'."

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Source Material: A History of World Societies, Fifth Edition, Volume II, Since 11000 by McKay, Hill, Buckler, Ebrey

Source Material: Worlds of History, A Comparative Reader, Volume Two: Since 1400 by Kevin Reilly

Source Material: Primis, Political Science, Ethical Theory of Government, Discourses (ISBN: 0-390-97507-9) published for Skidmore-Hess

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