Introduction Essay - 1,520 words

INTRODUCTION The Federal Election campaign Act is an United States Federal law passed in 1971 to increase disclosure of contributions for federal campaigns and amended in 1974 to place legal limits on the campaign contributions. The 1974 amendment envisages the following: Shifting onerous on candidates for the disclosure of sources of campaign contributions and campaign expenditure. Legal limits on campaign contributions by individuals and organisation and legal limits on campaign expenditure for those that accept public funding. Acceptance of campaign contribution directly from corporations, labour organisation and national banks, Government contractors, foreign nationals, cash contribution in excess of $ 100 and contribution in the name of another is prohibited. Elizabeth Drew argued that the present system of financing political campaign corrupted the entire senate and refused to divulge the individual names because he hold the system as the culprit and the individual within it . Elizabeth Drews alleges that in the corruption of American Politics: What went wrong and why that the culture of money dominates the Washington as never before. But at the end of October, 1999, the senate once again rejected the kinds of changes to the campaign finance system that Drew, McCain and others find useful.


The author argues in her book that American politics have been corrupted by the factor money and have suggested a number of ways to eradicate the corruption and refurbish virtue to Washington. In the drews list of solutions, traditional campaign finance reform measures feature prominently but also stresses that the subject themselves can accomplish many noteworthy results by forcing their elected representatives. Drew finds that the failure of the campaign finance system established in the aftermath of Watergate as the most serious of the problems. She further emphasis that main issue is the increased selfishness , decreased disinterestedness of politicians and a decline in the quality of politicians , the increased partisanship of politicians and a decline in the civility in the political process . Drew views that money has corrupted congress, money has influenced the government and also presidency. She adds that money influences the legislative decisions of members of congress and outcome of election campaign. But for the enough money, it is difficult to run an effective campaign and this distracts the members of congress from their legislative duties.


Further, career choice of US politicians is influenced by the money. In a nutshell, drew points out that striving for and obtaining money has become the predominant activity and not just in electoral politics and its effects are pernicious. One of the indirect ways to access to government officials is to make liberal contributions as university chairs and military museums. Drew recalls how the University of Tennessee established a chair to honor Vice President Gores late sister and how Gores fund raiser raised funds for the chair. She also narrates that how phenomenal fundraising aids members of congress as they strive to gain leadership position within the House and Senate. Drew also narrates a White House memorandum explaining that staff briefings of President Clinton may be considerably truncated or eliminated in order to accommodate the Presidents coffees with individuals who had contributed at least $ 5000. Drew also illustrates how New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg declined to run for reelection in part because he would have to raise $3000 an hour for nearly two years! Though the book lacks the kind of detailed historical review to support her contention that money plays a role in politics today that it never played ever before, but drew stresses that money being used to sway legislative and administrative decisions and her views can not be dismissed as crying wolf! Dysfunctional politics: Drew insists that now congress is filled with men and women who are neither qualified nor interested in serving the public good.


Drew feels that the reducing quality of the members of congress evidenced by their lack of their overriding pursuit of their own careers and their failure to socialize with political opponents in a way that would breed understanding of different point of view. Drew is against the role of soft money -money raised and spent by political parties or private interests , as opposed to the hard money given to and spent by the candidate himself . After the Supreme Courts decision in Buckley v Valeo, federal law has limited hard money contributions to $ 1000 per individual and $ 5000 per organisation. Drew charges the spiraling efforts to obtain soft money for virtually all of the Clinton financial scandals in his 1996 election the large contributions from unsavory or possibly illegal s ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: campaign finance, drew, american politics, contribution, political campaigns

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