Coining Corruption: The Making of the American Campaign Finance System

Legislatures and courts defined and then regulated the kinds of corruption that alfected the candidates because it [corruption] was seen as detrimental to the free democratic will of the voter and to the deliberative principles of American democracy. For a century, these legislative efforrs stoutly stood for the proposition that Congress could regulate the solicitation, assessment, and expenditures of campaign finance money from a variety of sources to eliminate the coercive and corruptivc effects of campaign money, (p. 256) In recent decades, Hohenstein argues, the Supreme Court has altered its position: it now views campaign finance myopically through a Formalistic understanding of speech that permits regulation only to prevent quid pro quo corruption.