On election day, a half-baked proposal

Election day today, albeit not one of the more exciting ones for Texans. Reminds me of an idea I had a while back for reforming the government. A party of sorts forms, with congressional candidates all across the country, on a platform consisting solely of campaign finance reform. Something really drastic, along the lines of Ayres and Ackerman or Lessig. Once these folks get into office and pass the Campaign Finance Reform Act, or whatever it comes to be known, they all resign. Then we can have a serious election. As I noted previously, taking the money out of politics wouldn't solve all of the problems with our current system, but it would sure help a lot.

I think it might actually work if voters could be convinced that a vote for one of these candidates is a vote for campaign finance reform, with no other implications. Two problems I can see: a coordination problem, in that people don't want to vote for one of these candidates if they don't feel confident that enough of them will be elected to pass the law; and there isn't any way for the candidates to commit to the deal, including the resignation part. They could be voted out of office eventually, but I imagine voters would be nervous about the prospect of people with random political stances (except on the one issue) running amok in the federal government for any length of time. Those with a vested interest in the status quo could exploit that nervousness. Thus the characterization of the proposal as "half-baked."

Campaign finance reform and its implications

This is an issue that I was interested in, then excited about, and then less so. My preoccupation with it peaked when I read Larry Lessig's book Republic, Lost. In it, Lessig details the extent to which money influences policy and presents an alternative system of campaign financing. I highly recommend the book, although if you would prefer to watch a video, this YouTube clip (48 minutes) covers much of what is in the book. Lessig more recently published an e-book, Lesterland, which presents the same basic point more briefly, and he gave a TED talk on it in a few months ago.

Lessig seems to be focused on spreading information and generating enthusiasm for changing the system. I'm still totally on board with the kinds of reforms he is suggesting. I have to wonder, though, how much of an improvement it would really be. Even if we create a system that forces politicians to cater to large numbers of voters, we can't expect that all the best policy decisions will be made. Voters don't generally have incentive to become informed, and they tend not to very good at processing what information they do receive. To take just one example, consider how difficult it is to convince the general public of the dangers of global warming. Uncertainties and biases can be exploited, especially by those with abundant resources at their disposal. It may not be as easy to influence voters through informational campaigns as it is to influence politicians through campaign donations; but surely it would happen to some extent. Even if no one actively tries to manipulate voters, how will they arrive at their voting decisions? I would feel fairly confident that our system of governance would improve if we dramatically reformed campaign financing, but I would still be looking out for some nutty policies to emerge.