PUBPOL 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Federal Corrupt Practices Act, Campaign Finance Reform In The United States, Federal Election Campaign Act
Document Summary
Teddy roosevelt talked about the fault in our politics that would help him earn his presidency. [the] conflict between the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess is the central condition of progress. Corporate expenditures for political purposes have supplied one of the principal sources of corruption in our political affairs. [e]very special interest is entitled to justice, but not one is entitled to a vote in. Congress, to a voice on the bench, or to representation in any public office. Constitution guarantees protection to property, and we must make that promise good. But it does not give the right of suffrage to any corporation He really articulated this tension between private power and american democracy, between the equality that we value in the public sphere and the inequality we tolerate in the private sphere, between democracy and capitalism.
