Ethics in Politics– TEST 1 Study Guide Prep – Flashcards

an independent regulatory agency established in 1975 to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA).

The Federal Election Commission Act

-A United States federal law which increased disclosure of contributions for federal campaigns. -It was amended in 1974 to place legal limits on the campaign contributions. -The amendment also created the Federal Election Commission (FEC). -It was amended again in 1976, in response to the provisions ruled unconstitutional by Buckley v. Valeo and again in 1979 to allow parties to spend unlimited amounts of hard money on activities like increasing voter turnout and registration. In 1979, the Commission ruled that political parties could spend unregulated or "soft" money for non-federal administrative and party building activities. Later, this money was used for candidate-related issue ads, which led to a substantial increase in soft money contributions and expenditures in elections. This in turn created political pressures

Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976), was a landmark case in American campaign finance law. In a per curiam opinion, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down on First Amendment grounds several provisions in the 1974 Amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act. The most prominent portions of the case struck down limits on spending in campaigns, but upheld the provision limiting the size of individual contributions to campaigns. The Court also narrowed, and then upheld, the Act's disclosure provisions, and struck down (on separation of powers grounds) the make-up of the Federal Election Commission, which as written allowed Congress to directly appoint members of the Commission, an executive agency. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is a U.S. constitutional law case dealing with the regulation of campaign spending by organizations. The United States Supreme Court held that the First Amendment prohibited the government from restricting independent political expenditures by a nonprofit corporation. The principles articulated by the Supreme Court in the case have also been extended to for-profit corporations, labor unions and other associations.

-signed in 2002 by Bush in attempt to halt abuses of current law; the act bans the raising of soft money (funds subject only to state, not federal, restrictions) by national parties and federal officeholders and candidates. -The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which regulates the financing of political campaigns. -Intended to address issues such as parties/ interests groups using "issue ads" to influence federal elections, which allowed them to escape the disclosure requirements and contribution limits that govern election campaigns. Took advantage of loopholes! These ads are now labeled as "electioneering communication" broadcast ads that name a federal candidate within 30 days of a primary or caucus or 60 days of a general election, and prohibiting any such ad paid for by a corporation (including non-profit issue organizations such as Right to Life or the Environmental Defense Fund) or paid for by an unincorporated entity using any corporate or union general treasury funds.

-Clean Money Campaign Reform provides qualifying candidates - who agree to limit their spending and reject contributions from private sources - with a set amount of public funds to run for office. It is a model reform for both federal and state races and versions of it have already passed in two states: -Maine and Vermont -While elements of the plan vary according to local circumstances, in general, participating candidates receive full public financing for the primary and general elections. They qualify for funding by raising a high number of small (e.g., $5) qualifying contributions from voters in their districts or states.Clean Money Campaign Reform is not an attempt to patch up the current system, but instead is designed as an alternative to it. By ending politicians' reliance on special interest money - and offering in its place a limited but competitive amount of money from a Clean Money fund - Clean Money Campaign Reform provides another way for candidates to finance their campaigns.

-The title of the chapter is "The Buying of the President" -The author says there is a strong correlation between donations and what actions are taken. When there are powerful constituents who are able to strengthen their voice with the weight of funding, politicians want to secure the line of support by favoring the goals of those constituents.

-a former American lobbyist, businessman, movie producer and writer. He was at the center of an extensive corruption investigation that led to his conviction and to 21 people either pleading guilty or being found guilty,including White House officials J. Steven Griles and David Safavian, U.S. Representative Bob Ney, and nine other lobbyists and Congressional aides. --After a guilty plea in the Jack Abramoff Native American lobbying scandal and his dealings with SunCruz Casinos in January 2006, he was sentenced to six years in federal prison for mail fraud, conspiracy to bribe public officials, and tax evasion. He served 43 months before being released on December 3, 2010. After his release from prison, he wrote the autobiographical book Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About

-The Ethics Reform measure are in fact at their best essentially devices for trying to inhibit and expose conflicts of financial interest, and have little effect in establishing the higher components of ethics the proponents desire. -There is considerable evidence that the pursuit of strong limits on corruption may directly or indirectly constrain administrators in other aspects of their role that are essential to effective public management. -The goal of the ethics reform appears to be, at first, to create corps of public officials who seem to be free of all entangling personal interests and therefore completely disinterested (at least in their official capacity), and, second, to create a means of reassuring the public on an on-going basis that processes exist to maintain and document this degree of purity. This concept of enforced disinterestedness appears to be in conflict with some important expectations and understandings about how governance in democracy must work

-The 1958 Code of Ethics stated the codes and principles that were meant to be upheld by all of Congress and government employees. -Congress established special committees on ethics to avoid the sort of partisan bickering. Senators, in 1964, voted to set up a strictly bipartisan committee to investigate allegations of improper conduct by senators and Senate employees. The House in 1967, established a twelve -member bipartisan Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to recommend a code of conduct for representatives and the powers it might need to enforce it. The committee recommended a code of conduct in 1968, with a requirement for financial disclosure. -In regard to honoraria, post-government employment, and financial disclosure, created a limitation to the amount of things they could receive.

-established the Office of Government Ethics in the Office of Personnel Management to provide overall direction for the government's ethics policies and programs -created the position of special prosecutor-now independent counsel-and a process in which three-judge special division of the United States Court of Appeals for the district of Columbia appoints an Independent counsel to investigate violations of the federal criminal law by high ranking government officials, and officials of national presidential campaign committees. -established public financial disclosure requirements for senior officials in the legislative, judicial, and executive branches -amended the conflict of interest provisions of 18 USC 207 to include a one-year "revolving door" ban on contact by specified executive branch officials with their former agencies -established the Office of Senate Legal Counsel to represent the Senate and its members in certain matters

-Progressives followed populists yet urban, national, more educated. They were made up of college graduates, attorneys, journalists, doctors, and bankers. Also, led by anti-machine men of the middle class who felt threatened. They were not socialists or communists. Many were anti-immigrant since immigrants were part of machines. -Social reforms included the Meat Inspection Act and civic improvements (housing codes), as well as child labor laws and prohibition. Political reforms included the Australian ballot, direct election of senators, change in how political campaigns could be financed, and federal laws on the publicity of expenditures. -Link and McCormick take a rather negative view. The Australian ballot impacted illiterate voters and since Progressives wanted educated voters, they disfranchised many Native Americans and immigrants. A decline in turnout among non-immigrants and whites also as the parties weakened and less excitement resulted in the voting process. The rise of interest groups also occurred.

Peter and Welch looked at the electoral impact of corruption charges from 1968-1978 and considered moral charges, bribery, abuse of Congressional prerogatives (travel, franking), other crimes, campaign finance violations, and conflicts of interests. There was a net loss in vote totals for both Democrats and Republicans of 6-11% averaged across all charges. The highest vote loss was for morals charges followed by bribery. Elections are not a perfect mechanism to punish unethical candidates as the study was repeated in 1882-1990 and every charge had effect on vote total yet most charged with violations were re-elected. Kirby argues that election do work in some cases. Criminal prosecution has proved to be highly effective in engendering fatal electoral retaliation. Criminal indictments carry a high likelihood of causing electoral rejection when a member must stand for election before trial. Formal discipline of a member has a high likelihood of causing electoral defeat. A more likely prospect is that Congress might make greater use of its organizational disciplinary powers. According to trading theory, voters balance corruption charges against other factors mattering for vote such as party ID, candidates' policy positions, and tenure.

George Washington Plunkitt was a Tammany leader of the fifteenth assembly district. He was also an assemblyman, alderman, police magistrate, and county supervisor. "I seen my opportunities and I took 'em"- using inside information. The money in the treasury is not taken. Friends are taken care of in honest graft. Civil service reform destroys patriotism as it rises in the party. Plunkitt does not believe in the questions asked on the examination. Rewarding men in victory provides an incentive which civil service destroys. Parties support the political system and the parties can only be held together if the workers get offices when they win. Civil service reformers also do not last as politics is regular business and people must be knowledgeable in it. He argues that many young, patriotic Americans have become anarchists due to civil service examinations.

-A political machine is a party organization within which power is highly centralized, and whose members are motivated and rewarded by divisible material incentives rather than by considerations of ideology or long-term goals of public policy. -Three possible explanations for the rise of machine politics: a personalistic explanation, emphasizing political values; an institutional view, pointing to factors such as partisan, district-based elections, the spoils system, and mayor-council government; and a systematic perspective, emphasizing the interests and actions of political elites and groups within the more general political environment. -The costs and benefits of machines are diverse. They are resistant to simple labels of good or bad. Not everything about machine politics is corrupt. Many of the boss' fundamental techniques- strong party discipline, capitalizing on division in the social structure, and vigorous efforts to turn out votes- are perfectly legal and often are used by the machine's enemies as well. But other aspects are corrupt. The strength of the machine rests upon control of the policy process and the ability to confer benefits of public policy upon one's friends and to withhold them from one's enemies helps make the machine strong.

The growth of the spoils system, without question, played the most important role in the erosion of ethical standards in government. The new spoil system challenged the dominant vision of public service. It put an end to the "quasi-monopoly of office holding enjoyed by the class of gentlemen who had been called to official position since the foundation of the republic." Political parties quickly became addicted to the spoil system. (Parties used the system to reward loyal workers who organized thousands of newly enfranchised voters.) Spoils appointees, with less secure futures, sometimes decided to break the law to build themselves a nest egg as a hedge against a change in their political fortunes.

-It was very corrupt. Washington originally laid the foundation for the "golden age," but it was ruined. By the 1820s, the spoils system, patronage, and the other accoutrements of regularized party politics in the new, popular, democratic mold were beginning to question the prerogatives of the "first characters" and to threaten the standards of conduct which they had established. By the end of this era, the groundwork was being laid for a new manner of politics, a manner inherently biased toward favoritism in the selection of officials, if not toward actual corruption in the conduct of official duties. -Jackson originally used his patronage to get elected and by 1820 the use of patronage to secure partisan control of election was well established in NY and Pennsylvania. He also started a reform in which he eliminated from office those who opposed him and the appointment of his supporters. He used the spoil system judiciously and replaced only 10 to 20 percent of fed government employees during his administration. Extended all government appointments to 4 years. Under the Jacksonian Presidents, the Post Office, with its thousands of local patronage appointees, was developed into a limited national political machine at the personal disposition of the President. The Jacksonian era was accompanied by a more complex society in which fraud is less easily punished and there are the temptation of "the great prizes in railroad construction, shipping, and manufacturing," the spirit of speculation, the anonymity of urban life, and the varying standards of morality resulting from immigration. -Corruption appeared to be more by individuals within various sectors of the government. The years between the Civil War and WWI saw both the most widespread and the deepest corruption that the federal government was ever to endure. The republican era opened in moral chaos. Members of congress, high exec officials, and subordinate administrative agents were guilty of one dereliction after another. -He says that some, but certainly not all, federal corruption was initiated by businesses. Much personal corruption like the Randolph and Wilkinsen matters had no connection with business. -The growth of the spoils system, without question, played the most important role in the erosion of ethical standards in government. -The Credit Mobilier (before Grant admin.), Sanborn Contracts Scandal, The Whisky Ring, Government Reform Movement