Billions Ready: Does Democracy Have a Chance?

by Gene Rose

The money is in the bank or on its way. The commercials are in production. The candidates have their messages. Does democracy have a chance?

Right after the holidays, it will be open season on legislative and executive institutions as political candidates -- led by those running for president -- begin to release billions of advertising dollars between January and November. (With recognition of the citizens in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, who already have seen their fair share.) By all indications, the trend to criticize candidates' viewpoints, experiences and judgments will continue in 2008. And few will overcome the urge to trash the very institutions the candidates are seeking to join.

"Political Ad Spend to Soar," says this article in Adweek. Forbes agrees, and says it's good economic news for all media and even the U.S. Postal Service. Newspapers are hopeful to increase their political advertising revenues, according to this article in Editor & Publisher.

Negative advertising works, political candidates are told. (Wikipedia offers some nice background on it here.) While there are plenty of examples where it doesn't work, not going on the attack often makes a candidate look weak.

While the tactic largely is seen on the national stage, there are plenty of current state legislators who have won due to negative advertising, and those who have barely survived an onslaught.

In the end, the billions spent attacking candidates and political institutions only reinforce the public's cynicism of public service. And, there is reason to believe that there are plenty of good, qualified people who would consider running for elected office that decide they don't want to put themselves or their families through this process.

There are several organizations, such as NCSL's Trust for Representative Democracy, who are fighting hard to show the value of representative democracy. Their cause is worthy. All they have to do is go up against the billions of dollars spent trashing the system and the people who participate in it.

Comments

[Mitch McCartney]

After sitting at the dinner table the past two holidays with members of my own family, it is dawned on me that solving the problem of candidates (and members) running against the institution won't be solved alone by coaching lawmakers to reinforce the values of representative democracy with their constituents. Even more alarming, it won't be solved by working to reinforce those values from the public information side of the equation.

No, the sad truth is that we need to create a political climate in which people WANT to trust their government and its institutions. That's something that will be very difficult to do.

Seemingly, we've become a society that isn't happy unless it's unhappy about something. Reasonable people will disagree as to why that is, but at the end of the day, if we don't want to trust our democratic institutions, we'll find a reason not to.

The media, the campaign advisors, the advertising agencies are all merely playing by the rules of the game they have been presented. Distrust and fear sell. Good news and optimism, unfortunately, currently do not.

[Craig Hansen]

As a 23 year old, I sincerely hope that Trust for Representative Democracy succeeds in its mission. The stakes are extremely high. The book Republic On Trial by Alan Rosenthal, Burdett Loomis, John Hibbing and Karl Kurtz is excellent. I wish all Americans would read it. Being a Californian, I can see how the citizens have crippled their own legislature and created a system where elected officials do not have the power to do the job they were elected to do. The initiative system gives voters the illusion of control, yet special interest put propositions on the ballot to benefit themselves. In California, the initiative process has made the state government dysfunctional. The legislature is superior compared to direct democracy. Hopefully Americans will come to believe in their representative democracy again.

[Karl Kurtz]

Thanks for the kudos for Republic on Trial (http://www.ncsl.org/bookstore/productdetail.htm?prodid=030423), Craig. It makes an author feel good that at least one American has read the book, and that it has made a difference.