• THIS MORNING:
• Why the party system is decentralized
• Money and politics
• Discussion of the effects of campaign finance reform on parties
• Film that illustrates these points: "Washington's Other Scandal."

• RECAP - EXPLANATIONS OF PARTY WEAKNESS:
• Reprinted from yesterday's notes
• Constitutional system, especially federalism and independently elected legislative members, creates numerous power centers.
• Separate constituencies

• Candidate-centered campaigns: candidates (e.g., senators and representatives) have their own sources of support and power and do not rely on the central party organization.
• I mentioned Biden yesterday.
• General-welfare liberalism: distrust of parties and party bosses.
• Perot's 1992 candidacy and Colin Powell are examples of reaction against politics as usual.
• The same can be said of term limits.
• Recent trends in party development:
• Increasing importance of primaries over conventions and caucuses in the nomination process
• Television gives candidates independent "access" to voters.
• Party leaders are "circumvented"
• And it increases costs of running for office
• Campaign finance reform during the 1970s strengthened interest groups
• Perhaps surprisingly, campaign finance reforms have (in my view) further weakened parties.

• CAMPAIGN FINANCES:
• Largely reprinted from yesterday's notes.
• The Watergate reforms.
• Disclosure
• As an example, you can track big "givers"
• Click on a state, then look at the donors.
• In Delaware, for example, something called "DLO Corp" is the biggest "soft money" (see below) contributor.
• Click on here at the top of the page and then enter "DLO" in the box "Go Search."
• You'll be taken to a list of recipients of DLO contributions.
• Why not click on Image under the first and go to the actual page that lists the amount DLO gave.
• This page also has a menu. If you go to the first page, you'll see that this organization is called "Republican House-Senate Dinner" committee.
• If you look around you'll see that this committee raised quite a bit of money from quite a few corporations and individuals.
• Spend half an hour here: it quite an experience!!!
• Limits on spending
• Caps on contributions
• Public financing of presidential elections.
• Political action committees (PACs):
• Organizations that solicit contributions from members and others and distributes to candidates
• A graph that shows the explosion in PACs
• Federal Election Commission (FEC).
• Campaign finance rules and regulations
• Some unintended consequences
• Political Action Committees (PACs)
• Some very important points:
• Incumbents main beneficiaries
• Contributions to House members favored Democrats until 1994 and now are about 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats. WHY?
• Data on PACs
• "Soft money": contributions ostensibly made to parties for purposes such as "get-out-the-vote" drives, but in actuality support candidates at all levels.
• Table that shows who gives and who receives soft money
• A similar page.
• Spending limits and Buckley vs Valeo
• The "money talks" decision
• Wealth cannot be denied.
• The effect of reforms has been to weaken parties by giving group greater access through funding opportunities.
• Explore campaign contribution data
• It lots of fun
• The strength of interest groups and now their PACS.
• All of these developments conspire to weaken parties and strengthen both individuals and interest groups.

• NEXT TIME:
• Interest groups and politics

Go to Notes page

Go to American Political System page

Go to H. T. Reynolds page