‘Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United’ by Zephyr Teachout

I started this book in late 2015 – prior to the election of Trump – in response to my growing understanding of the effect of lobbying as well as a course that I took at NYU focusing on the ethics of political lobbying as a company executive

The book explores the evolution of the concept of ‘corruption’ from the framers of the US constitution through to the recent Supreme Court decision of Citizens United

It is detailed book as befits a constitutional law professor from Fordham University but it does provide powerful precis of the issues:

• Corruption in America was originally a broad concept which the constitution was established, along with the judicial system, to combat as well as strengthen the civic mindness of the population
• This focus was driven by the experience of the favour based system of the British monarchy – the framers sought to make the civic virtue the centerpiece of the new republic rather than the courting of royal favours
• The very perception of corruption (even in the absence of actual corruption) was seen as a fatal for citizen’s belief in the system as it impacted the equality of representation
• However, since the 1950s, the Supreme Court has whittled the concept of corruption down to quid pro quo – meaning that all influencing done by donors and lobbyists is legal as along as there is no explicit ‘I give you something and you give me something’. In fact, the majority opinion of the Court was that influencing politicians using money is a fundamental part of free speech.
• This is a substantial change from the framers ambition and further pushes politicians to be influenced by donors as there are many avenues to move a politician to depriortise the wishes of voters

The book is powerful and I finished it now because it seems evident to me that the Australian political landscape is experiencing increased prioritisation of donors over voters.

Given the awareness and concern about climate change, it is hard to see that there is not a fundamental incentive that blocks effective policy responses.

So I am going to explore this issue in 2020.

I am going to explore the intersection between political influencing, campaign finance and climate and energy policy. The purpose is to focus my mind.

Policy development, economic modelling, workforce transition – its all be done. What remains is the pinch point of political will and I want to understand how lobbying and political will interact on these issues.