>Imagine, if you will, a country where the politicians are not allowed
>to take PAC money, where campaign "war chests" are limited to a
>reasonable level (attainable by resourceful people who are not
>Trumps, Forbs or Bushes) , where campaign tv and newspaper add spaces
>are allocated before hand and not to be sold to the highest bidder.
>Imagine, if money were not the barrier to running for or staying in
>office. Now, once that candidate is in power, he or she can AFFORD
>to listen to his/her *consituents* and can afford to make decisions
>which are in the public good but which might run counter to the
>profit-interests of company X.
Broadly descriptive of Canadian rules, at least back in the late 80s
when I was a vp of my federal MP's Riding (district) Committee. Up
until the last two lines or so, anyhow. Maybe they can afford to do,
but rarely actually *do.* Our MP was decisively relegated to the back
benches (of government) because he took the side of his constituents
rather too often.
Hmmm. Might we get better anti-trust
>enforcement? Might we get better city planning? Might we get better
>product liablility? Might we get better enforcement of environmental
>laws? Might we get few subsidies for those who are already skimming
>the cream from the top? Might we get some solutions which also work
>for the LONG RUN PUBLIC INTEREST?
Based on my experience in Canada ... nope. Same shit, different
windrow.
>In short, might we get the
>government to actually and consistantly do it's job as the manager of
>the public realm, allocation of public goods, reduction of public
>bads, etc?
>From 1971 to 1991 Canadian federal government expenditures increased by
four times, adjusted for inflation. I doubt many Canadians felt four
times better defended, educated, protected, etc. etc. in 1991 than they
did in 1971. You'd have to convince me that the election spending rules
produced any noticeable improvement in government.
Bart
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