Dollars and Votes: How Business Campaign Contributions Subvert Democracy

"This is quite simply the best book ever written about campaign finance in America. The extensive interviews with corporate government relations people that form the main evidential basis of the book are stunning in their candor and what they reveal about corporate intentions. No journalist or social scientist will be able to talk about campaign finance in the future without coming to terms with this splendid book." --Edward S. Greenberg, Political Science, University of Colorado, Boulder "Clawson et al, redefine the campaign finance reform debate with Clean Money Campaign Reform--the sweeping solution raging through the states. If anyone doubts its potential as federal reform, they must read the arguments for it in this book. No thinking person can be against it." --Ellen S. Miller, Executive Director, Public Campaign "Indispensable for engaged citizens and serious analysts. Virtually every federal Government issue deeply affecting people's lives is not damagingly skewed by the way big special-interest election money dominates our politics. Understanding just how dollars currently beat voters is the needed first step toward mobilizing forces for change and toward restoring American democracy." --Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator "This is the definitive study of the growing importance of business money in contemporary electoral politics. Clawson, Neustadt and Weller put to rest the obfuscations that have prevented effective reform. As Lincoln Steffens showed for machine politics, they demonstrate that the problem is rooted in the deep pockets of a business community that systematically seeks to dominate our political system." --Frances Fox Piven, author of Regulating the Poor "This is something extremely rare, a book that is up-to-date and a major contribution to political sociology. Anyone who cares about the future of democracy should read this book and contend with its arguments." --Fred Block, Sociology, University of California, Davis