Campaign finance
Campaign Finance is the money used raised for election campaigns in the United states. Election Campaigns generally need money for a variety of reasons like travel of candidates, purchase of airtime on Television advertisements, payment to be made to campaign staff. The amount of money spent for each campaign varies according to the nature of campaigns. For instance some campaigns need very less or no money at all for their campaigns, whereas Campaign Finance for the President of United States requires massive amounts of money for various expenditure incurred and great deal of effort is put in to raise the money.
How do contributions come
Campaign Finance is collected through various sources like lobbyists, corporations, trade unions and other special interest groups. Those who contribute will have direct or indirect influence on the policies of the government in case the candidate whom they supported comes to power. Countries like US take a more casual or liberated view on this policy, whereas some countries hold a restricted view on the policy of campaign finance.
Techniques used to acquire finance
Candidates spend a lot of time on raising funds for the campaigns. Some of the techniques used are:
1. Meetings with large donors
2. Through email or the Internet
3. Through dinner where the candidate hosts a dinner and the participant has to pay an entry fee. Sometimes the fees are huge as $1000 and the funds raised in the process are used for campaigns.
Public Financing
Public financing or taxpayer financing means money used for campaign comes from government. This method
is used to avoid the conflict which arises when funds are received from private donations as the interest of the donors is to get more access to the policies of the government on their side hence corrupting the governments systems.
California is leading the way for public financing of election campaigns otherwise called clean elections. George W. Bush has also stopped accepting private donations for campaigns as the government has fixed limits for spending. Some candidates have also started the raising funds much before the election campaign cycle to avoid the limits imposed by the government.
Other countries
Austria is public financing scheme where the candidate receives the same cost of 3 postage stamps per elector in elections where they receive more than 4% of the vote
Hong Kong: is under public financing scheme. Each candidate or list of candidates receives funding from the government for each vote won over and above a percentage of votes won minus the contributions received for the campaign. The winners can claim the amount after the elections
Germany also follows a system of public financing where the candidates get compensation if they have won more than % of the votes.
History of Campaign Finance
History tells that Campaign Finance was accepted in the 19th century from all classes of people and it was almost mandatory to give money for the elections. However with the passage of time several restrictions and laws were made banning public from contributing money for elections they are as follows:
Right from 19th Century in United States funds were collected from civilians for the purpose of conducting elections. In 1867, the Naval appropriations Bill which banned naval yard workers from contributing for campaigns.1883: the Civil Service Reform Act which banned accepting contributions from civil servants in the US. 1905: President Theodore Roosevelt banned corporations from giving funds for campaigns. But this law did not prevent individuals running the organizations to give funds. 1907 Tillman Act: prevented corporations and banks from funding campaigns. However due to weak nature of the law it was not enforceable. 1910 Federal Corrupt Practices Act: this bill made it mandatory for the candidates to disclose the expenditure limits to the government and established expenditure limits for house and senate campaigns. 1925- Federal Corrupt Practices Act- this bill helped in reforming the entire process of Campaign financing. 1940 Hatch Act Amendments which help set the limits for accepting finance from individuals by candidates. From 1943 to 1979 several laws were brought in by the parliament enforcing strict legislations on acceptance of Finance from individuals thereby streamlining Campaign Finance.
Assumptions:
The history of campaign finance tells us that efforts to curb accepting and spending limits of funds by parties met with strong resistances from both political parties as well as the contributors. Despite the popularity of campaign financing laws which were introduced they did not have any effect on the actual contributions made by the individuals and the spending of the candidates. Inspite of serious regulations some contributors were spending money on behalf of the candidate with or without their knowledge. Therefore campaign financing has become a habit rather than a contribution.
The Federal Election Campaign Act
Imposed serious limitations to campaign spending as under:
a) Limiting the contribution per individual to $ 1000 per candidate as well as counting primary and general elections as separate elections.
b) Limiting individual contributions to $25,000 per calendar year in sum where it be contributions to candidates, party committees, and political action committees (PACs).
c) Limiting PAC and party committee contributions $5,000 per candidate per election.
d) Personal spending limited to $25,000 in House races and $35,000 in Senate races, later this law was overruled by the Supreme Court.
e) Ceiling were placed on the amount that could be spent in any campaign: $70,000 for a House seat and $100,000, or eight cents per eligible voter, in the Senate.
f) Ceilings were placed on the expenditures made by nonparty committeesnon party committee means amount spend by party without the without knowledge of the candidatewere limited to $1,000 per candidate per election.
g) Ceilings were placed on political party committees spending on behalf of the candidate for both House Campaigns and Senate Campaigns.
Laws c),d) and f) were later overruled by the Supreme Court.
Ultimately the general assumption of campaign financing is that there is too much money spent in the process and that it has a corrupting influence like buying and selling votes and thereby alienating the common man from the political system. Therefore campaign financing process is in some way less democratic. Efforts have to put in the right direction to bring in the system of clean financing of elections thereby bringing down the corrupting influence on campaign financing.
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