Campaign Finance Reform Research Paper

A controversial issue in politics is campaign finance reform. Today’s political campaigns are largely funded by the wealthy elite in America and the corporations they own and fund. Currently, campaigns and campaign finances are government by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The FEC is “the independent regulatory agency charged with administering and enforcing the federal campaign finance law. The FEC has jurisdiction over the financing of campaigns for the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, the Presidency and the Vice Presidency” (The FEC). The FEC tries to promote public disclosure of campaign funds that are raised for any political party; sets limits of the financial contribution made by individuals, corporations and political action committees

Roosevelt signs the Tillman Act of 1907 because of his belief that money has a negative influence in politics, especially political campaigns. The Tillman Act banned corporations from giving money directly to candidates (Hossain, 2010). This idea was expanded by the Taft-Harley Labor Act of 1947 prohibiting not only corporations but unions and national banks from making contributions to political campaigns (Hossain, 2010). These acts should have put an end to the corruption in political campaign but after 1947, political interest groups took up the charge of corruption. An interest group is “an organized group of individuals sharing common objectives who actively attempt to influence policymakers” (Sidlow & Henschen, 2014). In another effort to stop corruption in political campaign financing, the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) was passed in 1971 and amended several times thereafter. The act “upholds the ban on direct contributions by corporations and unions but allows them to use their general funds to set up separate political action committees, financed by the voluntary contributions from employees and stockholders and subject to detailed public disclosure requirements” (Hossain, 2010). Additionally, the act created disclosure laws and limited the spending corporations were

Based on the history of campaign finance reform mentioned above, it is uncertain if meaning reform will ever be instituted. Money in politics creates an unspoken quid pro quo relationship between the donor and recipient. This creates an imbalance in the system. Money is not freedom of speech and with millions of dollars that are raised for political parties; the general understanding is “he with most money wins.” The reason person can clearly see that even if corporations are concerned to be individuals, no individual freely gives large amounts of money without receiving something in