Re:Kill Hollywood? Let's fix politics instead: kill lobbying.
by chiaro on Tuesday January 24, 2012 @09:41AM
(#3504890)
The way I see it, the only reason political parties need such vast amounts of money is to spend it campaigning. If you reduce the need or ability to campaign, by restricting advertising or making voting compulsory, the demand for money is lessened, and some industry or another threatening to pull their support isn't such a big deal.
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Re:Kill Hollywood? Let's fix politics instead: kill lobbying.
by simonbrown on Tuesday January 24, 2012 @12:36PM
(#3505727)
How would making voting compulsory reduce the need/ability to campaign?
Re:Kill Hollywood? Let's fix politics instead: kill lobbying.
by jbooth on Tuesday January 24, 2012 @12:45PM
(#3505760)
A huge part of campaigning is either driving your own turnout (field operations) or suppressing the other guys' turnout (negative ads). Additionally, there's a philosophy of "suppress turnout in general and it will probably help me", which statistically is a good move for Republicans, most of the time.
The argument is that compulsory voting would disincentivize these activities in favor of issues-based campaigning. I agree although I'm not sure I agree strongly enough to favor compulsory voting.
Re:Kill Hollywood? Let's fix politics instead: kill lobbying.
by Florin_Andrei on Tuesday January 24, 2012 @02:01PM
(#3506118)
How about "single payer" campaign funding?
You want to contribute money to politics? Sure, feel free to pour some into this big barrel over here. The proceeds will be evenly divided between all candidates.
Re:Kill Hollywood? Let's fix politics instead: kill lobbying.
by simonbrown on Tuesday January 24, 2012 @04:36PM
(#3506956)
At the party level, or just to "politics" in general?
Re:Kill Hollywood? Let's fix politics instead: kill lobbying.
by Florin_Andrei on Wednesday January 25, 2012 @03:42PM
(#3511645)
Nation-wide.