An arresting collection of revisionist essays that (despite what
will strike most readers as a surfeit of donnish baggage) put a
fresh spin on Tip O'Neill's dictum that money is the mother's milk
of politics. Drawing on a wealth of previously ignored data on the
financing of presidential campaigns, Ferguson (coauthor of Right
Turn, 1986, etc.) offers provocative perspectives on realpolitik
informed by what he calls investment theory. In brief, he concludes
that it is not voters who form the lifeblood of American political
parties but rather powerful blocs of business elites with durable
(largely economic) interests. Among other advantages, they have the
resources to master issues and the financial means to invest in the
election of candidates prepared to keep the ship of state on
courses of their choosing. Since political action in the US has
become so expensive, Ferguson argues, well-heeled elites set
agendas and influence deliberations and debate: "Everyone else
watches on TV," he notes. Employing anecdotal as well as
statistical evidence drawn from the past two centuries (including
the 1994 contest that gave the Republicans control of Congress),
the author makes a persuasive case for the sardonic observation
that those who control the gold rule. Cases in point range from the
willingness of internationally minded industrialists and Wall
Streeters to support FDR, through the reasons why realty groups cut
their contributions to conservative Democrats during the 1980s
(mainly because the cities and infrastructure projects had to
compete with the Pentagon for federal dollars). Citing Ross Perot,
Ferguson asserts that "with enough money, candidates can pole vault
over the whole rotting structure of party politics in America...."
As a card-carrying academic, the author feels obliged to
deconstruct the hypotheses of rival scholars, frequently in
excruciating detail. This considerable cavil apart, a genuinely
original and disturbingly convincing interpretation of what
underlies vox populi. Helpful graphs and tabular material
throughout. (Kirkus Reviews)
"To discover who rules, follow the gold." This is the argument of
"Golden Rule," a provocative, pungent history of modern American
politics. Although the role big money plays in defining political
outcomes has long been obvious to ordinary Americans, most pundits
and scholars have virtually dismissed this assumption. Even in
light of skyrocketing campaign costs, the belief that major
financial interests primarily determine who parties nominate and
where they stand on the issues--that, in effect, Democrats and
Republicans are merely the left and right wings of the "Property
Party"--has been ignored by most political scientists. Offering
evidence ranging from the nineteenth century to the 1994 mid-term
elections, "Golden Rule" shows that voters are "right on the
money."
Thomas Ferguson breaks completely with traditional voter centered
accounts of party politics. In its place he outlines an "investment
approach," in which powerful investors, not unorganized voters,
dominate campaigns and elections. Because businesses "invest" in
political parties and their candidates, changes in industrial
structures--between large firms and sectors--can alter the agenda
of party politics and the shape of public policy.
"Golden Rule" presents revised versions of widely read essays in
which Ferguson advanced and tested his theory, including his
seminal study of the role played by capital intensive
multinationals and international financiers in the New Deal. The
chapter "Studies in Money Driven Politics" brings this aspect of
American politics into better focus, along with other studies of
Federal Reserve policy making and campaign finance in the 1936
election. Ferguson analyzes how a changing worldeconomy and other
social developments broke up the New Deal system in our own time,
through careful studies of the 1988 and 1992 elections. The essay
on 1992 contains an extended analysis of the emergence of the
Clinton coalition and Ross Perot's dramatic independent insurgency.
A postscript on the 1994 elections demonstrates the controlling
impact of money on several key campaigns.
This controversial work by a theorist of money and politics in the
U.S. relates to issues in campaign finance reform, PACs,
policymaking, public financing, and how today's elections work.
General
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