Voting with Dollars : A New Paradigm for Campaign Finance

by Bruce Ackerman and Ian Ayres

• ISBN13: 9780300092622
• ISBN10: 0300092628
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2002-03-11
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

In this provocative book, two leading law professors challenge the existing campaign reform agenda and present a new initiative that avoids the mistakes of the past.

Bruce Ackerman and lan Ayres build on the example of the secret ballot and propose a system of "secret donation booths" for campaign contributions. They unveil a plan in which the government provides each voter with a special credit card account containing fifty "Patriot dollars" for presidential elections. To use this money, citizens go to their local ATM machine and anonymously send their Patriot dollars to their favorite candidates or political organizations. Americans are free to make additional contributions, but they must also give these gifts anonymously. Because candidates cannot identify who provided the funds, it will be much harder for big contributors to buy political influence. And the need for politicians to compete for the Patriot dollars will give much more power to the people.

Ackerman and Ayres work out the operating details of their plan, anticipate problems, design safeguard

Author Biography

Bruce Ackerman is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University.

Table of Contents

Free Lunches	ix
PART I. THE NEW PARADIGM
Reforming Reform	3	(9)
Patriot	12	(13)
The Donation Booth	25	(20)
Regulations of Last Resort	45	(12)
PART II. THE PARADIGM IN PRACTICE
Mixing Paradigms	57	(9)
Designing Patriot	66	(27)
Designing the Donation Booth	93	(18)
Plugging the Gaps	111	(17)
Safeguarding the Guardians	128	(12)
Who's Afraid of the Supreme Court?	140	(20)
Patriotic Politics	160	(63)
The Model Statute (with Danton Berube)
Summary	181	(5)
Text: The Citizen Sovereignty Act	186	(37)
Appendix A. The Stabilization Algorithm	223	(4)
Appendix B. The Secrecy Algorithm	227	(5)
Appendix C. Designing Contribution Limits	232	(9)
Appendix D. Costs of Administration	241	(6)
Notes	247	(46)
Index	293