Preston Taylor

It’s is common knowledge that it costs a lot of money to run a successful election campaign.  This enormous tab is often picked up by large corporations, the wealthy elite, and interest groups who are simply looking for a in with the new people in power.  It may not come as a surprise to you then, that while the common man may cast the votes, their voice is lost behind the roar of the investors in the business sector.  In this podcast by Planet Money entitled “The Seattle Experiment,” analysts Sarah Cliff and Kenny Malone investigate a new way to distribute campaign funds that puts power back into the hands of the people.  Ordinarily, campaign funds are given in large sums by corporations who seek an advantage by means of political influence.  They give money to politicians who are aligned with their views, which greatly helps them to get elected.  In the city of Seattle, drastic changes are coming to the way influence is distributed when it comes to elections.  In 2015, Wayne Barnett and the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission created a system in which individuals were responsible for donating money to candidates of their choice.  They announced its plan in the only way cities seem to know how:  a public service announcement.

“The city of Seattle is giving eligible Seattle residents one-hundred dollar in democracy vouchers that you can use to support participating candidates in the upcoming election…”

By slightly raising property taxes, Burnett and his team were able to ensure that each and every citizen who was eligible to vote had a opportunity to impact their candidate’s chance to win the election.

The voucher program was largely successful in achieving two of its main goals.  It drastically changed who had the ability to run for office and it sent candidates out into the community more than was previously necessary.  Before, most often, the winner of elections was the powerful incumbent due to their strong financial backing.  This most recent election, however, a young, minority, woman won her election the very first time she ran for public office.  The choice was a better reflection of the common man due to her ability to advertise as incumbents do.  Voters were able to choose the candidate who most accurately represented their view as opposed to only hearing about one name on the ballet.  Politicians were also forced to focus more on individual voters.  Candidates actually went door to door, to ask citizens for their democracy vouchers and hear directly from them what they wanted done in their city.

This podcast was pretty obviously discussing the effects of campaign donations as it relates to business, state, and society.  Now a days, it isn’t uncommon for businesses to spend millions of dollars in lobbying for political gain.  The benefits of such expenditures can be immeasurable, and corporations often overshadow the other members of society that would stand to gain from political influence were they given the chance.  This article by the Notre Dame School of Law entitled “What is this ‘Lobbying’ That We are All so Worried About?,” economists analyze the impacts of powerful lobbyists on politicians and their agendas and further explains how influential they can be.Modern politics is such a web between business donations, politicians, and citizens seeking a voice, that is often difficult to distinguish between the three.  In Seattle, the ties between business and state have begun to lessen, while those between the voter and the representative grow stronger.