According to Dan Clawson, Alan Neustadtl, and Mark Weller, excerpts from Dollars and Votes, how does the current system of campaign finance control who can run for office? What role does “the money primary” play here?
They argue that corporations and business lobbyists are more effective than other groups in using their “access” to shape the details of legislation. How does this happen?
What are some of the other ways that large donors to election campaigns are able to shape the making and implementation of legislation? What does the example of the Clean Air Act tell us about this?
How would public financing of campaigns work?
According to opponents, what are some of the problems with public campaign financing?
Paul Kantor (The Dependent City Revisited, pp. 1-12) argues that city governments are not free to shape their own destinies with regard to urban policies. He argues that city governments are forced into making policies that benefit business interests more than other groups that city governments are supposed to represent. He says this occurs not so much because politicians are dependent on business for campaign contributions but because cities are economically dependent on businesses. What precisely is his argument here? Why are cities economically dependent on business? Why are cities more economically dependent than national governments? (pp. 1-8)
Cities are in a constant competition with each other to attract business that produces goods and services for export to other communities. Why is this? (pp. 8-9)
Kantor argues that popular control institutions counter the power of business to constrain public policy decisions. By popular control institutions he means, for example, that city officials are elected and therefore must maintain popular support in order to be re-elected.
He concludes that “…revenue-providing groups may assume a privileged position within local popular control systems, but this does not mean that they can always dominate these systems…” What evidence does Kantor provide to support his contention that “revenue-providing groups” (businesses and wealthy individuals) do not always dominate in the process of making city policy? (pp. 11-12)
According to Teresa Huntsinger,
(“Planning for Clean Air and Environmental Justice,” air pollution is not even
throughout the
Why are EJAG and the Coalition for a Livable Future concerned about the expansion of I-5?
Karen Gibson describes a history of dis-investment in Albina. What were some key decisions in this history? What forces were involved in these decisions? What conclusions can we draw about class, race, and urban politics from the history of Albina?