Post by Chancellor of the Exchequer on May 25, 2006 17:27:10 GMT 10
On the bus to Easters, I talked with a few first-years about how the American lobbying system works. Then I saw this article in The Age, which was closely related, and I've spent the last couple of days trying to remember where I saw a segment about a similar issue in the US. I finally found it, and it's really interesting.
Anyway, here's The Age article, provocatively titled "Are our politicans for sale?"
www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/are-our-politicians-for-sale/2006/05/23/1148150251862.html
And here's the segment from Dateline relating to the corresponding issue in the US (scroll down to the 29 March 2006 feature, "Mr Abramoff goes to Washington", and click the link)
news.sbs.com.au/dateline/index.php?page=archive®ion=4#
It's well worth reading the first article - and if you think the stuff it talks about is screwed up, the second will just blow your mind. There's a lot of stuff in these two articles that can quite convincingly be used to argue the case for public finance of election campaigns. And if you listen closely, you can get an idea as to some of the arguments against, or at least some of the ways to mitigate problems. There's some really interesting stuff right at the end of the Dateline segment, from the British guy, about some of the problems it causes.
If you're interested in knowing more about lobbying and some of the problems it causes, look up stuff about public choice theory, and think critically about who lobbying is supposed to benefit, and at whose expense. Then think about how that interacts with a democratic system.
Anyway, here's The Age article, provocatively titled "Are our politicans for sale?"
www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/are-our-politicians-for-sale/2006/05/23/1148150251862.html
And here's the segment from Dateline relating to the corresponding issue in the US (scroll down to the 29 March 2006 feature, "Mr Abramoff goes to Washington", and click the link)
news.sbs.com.au/dateline/index.php?page=archive®ion=4#
It's well worth reading the first article - and if you think the stuff it talks about is screwed up, the second will just blow your mind. There's a lot of stuff in these two articles that can quite convincingly be used to argue the case for public finance of election campaigns. And if you listen closely, you can get an idea as to some of the arguments against, or at least some of the ways to mitigate problems. There's some really interesting stuff right at the end of the Dateline segment, from the British guy, about some of the problems it causes.
If you're interested in knowing more about lobbying and some of the problems it causes, look up stuff about public choice theory, and think critically about who lobbying is supposed to benefit, and at whose expense. Then think about how that interacts with a democratic system.
