American Politics. Campaign Finance Reform in California 2000-2016

Campaign Finance Reform in California 2000-2016
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Campaign Finance Reform in California 2000-2016
Introduction
The very definition of democracy is ‘government of the people by the people for the people,’ but monies involved in campaigns which is the most important element of democracy threatens it. The American political system has been heavily infested by ‘dark money’ (even from foreign sources), and it has threatened the stability of democracy CITATION Jos18 \l 1033 (Biden & Carpenter, 2018). The American Political landscape has slowly been becoming an oligarchy as only the wealthy individuals, and special interest groups have vested interest in the representation in government and influence legislation to be made in their favor. The major campaign financiers and special interest groups have heavily lobbied for different legislations in their favor in a bid to maximize their profits or expand their influence and spread their ideologies and philosophical beliefs CITATION Geo16 \l 1033 (Rennie, 2016). The elected representatives no longer represent the will of the people but of their campaign financiers. America has legalized this corruption and rebranded it lobbying which is far from the spirit of democracy. There are other democracies around the world (such as Switzerland) with near perfect representation without special interests by several individuals and or organizations, and they are performing very well. The dark monies poured into American politics have weakened our democracy in the recent past, and new legal framework is necessary to save our democracy from itself.
Brief History of Election Laws on Campaign Financing in American politics
The American political landscape, especially the electioneering process has always been heavily influenced by private and corporate donations to the candidates since the early 19th century. Through the 19th century, the democratic process of electing representatives to the government continually inclined towards the candidates with stronger support by corporates who could donate more monies to their campaigns. In the early 20th century, the Tilman Act of 1907 was passed that prohibited corporations and nationally chartered (interstate) banks from making direct financial contributions to federal candidates CITATION Sit02 \l 1033 (Sitkoff, 2002). Though the bill was well-intended, weak enforcement rendered it ineffective. Throughout the century, more legislations were passed which were intended to enforce anti-trust measures in the electioneering process. The Federal Corrupt Practices Act of 1925, amendment of the Hatch Act of 1939, the Smith-Connally Act of 1943 and Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 were passed in the first half of 20th century to address the evolving system of interest individuals and organizations in politics. Most of the legislation were expanding the framework of existing laws since the interest individuals were increasingly finding new ways to navigate the existing laws and or using new front groups to fund election campaigns CITATION Ric10 \l 1033 (Hasen, 2010). For example, the Taft-Harley Act extended the corporate ban on election campaign donations to labor unions.
In the latter period of the 20th...