I both agree and disagree with David Dayen’s latest piece at Nation on political corruption:
There are different stories, but they’re all fundamentally the same. They’re about corruption, and the ways in which big money influences policymakers: through direct means, like campaign contributions, and indirect ones, like funding “independent†academic research into policy matters and lobbying federal agencies to take desired actions. Corruption is at the heart of much of the political and economic strife we see today. Concentrated economic power begets concentrated political power, with big business rigging the game in its favor. And self-dealing and corruption have become a new normal, both for personal gain and as favors to some corporate interest, which may turn out to be a federal employee’s next employer. This saps trust in government institutions and paves the way for demagogues.
I agree that money in politics and government is corrupting. I disagree that corporations and libertarian individuals are the greatest worries which is the idea you might come away from his piece with. I agree that corruption in politics and government is a problem. I don’t believe that the corruption can be weeded out by restricting corporate and individual contributions.
If you look at the list of largest organizational contributors, labor unions, particularly public employees’ unions, are well-represented as are other organizations that depend heavily or wholly on rent-seeking, e.g. defense contractors, cable companies, and insurance companies.
In addition, Mr. Dayen thinks that trust in government is a good thing; I think that Americans don’t trust their government because their government is not worthy of their trust and that predates large corporate contributions. Indeed, it predates large corporations going right back to the founding of the republic.
I don’t believe that corruption in government and politics can be rooted out. Its risks can only be mitigated by keeping government small, weak, and close and with vigilance. That’s a belief that has a good pedigree: it was held by Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. I also think that corporations should be kept small and weak. Natural monopolies are relatively rare. Government-granted monopolies are everywhere.
