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Newsweek's Foreign Service
Votes for Sale
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Katie Ghose and Mark Bergman join Newsweek’s Josh Lowe and Mirren Gidda as they discuss changing spending regulations and whether they can change the underlying political cultures that have cultivated it.
Donald Trump has often sought to damage Hillary Clinton with allegations that she's trying to spend her way to victory, backed by Wall Street donors. But every firebrand has to sell out some time, and this month, Trump began airing his first ads. In the American system, where there are limits on donations but not on spending, a cash-based arms race between candidates is probably inevitable.
It got us thinking about how rules governing election spending affect a country's politics. There are different systems in the U.K., across Europe and elsewhere, each with their upsides and downsides for voters.
So what's the best system for managing the relationship between politics and money? Where should public funds come into play?
Katie Ghose is the chief executive of the U.K.-based Electoral Reform Society think tank, and Mark Bergman is an American corporate lawyer who has fundraised for the Democrats over the last three election cycles.
Newsweek’s Foreign Service is recorded and edited by Jordan Saville.
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