Corruption in America: Corporatocracy
Corporations: Democracy's Achilles Heel
USA Today came out with a bombshell piece detailing the depths of corporate influence on legislation in the United States. Essentially, corporations and special interest groups write up bills that get proposed by (and often passed into law by) lawmakers in state legislatures across the nation. Lawmakers get an easy way to get their names on bills (the bills are basically written for them) and get to build relationships with important special interest groups, while those groups get their interests advanced by lawmakers.
Here's the summary from USA Today: "Each year, state lawmakers across the U.S. introduce thousands of bills dreamed up and written by corporations, industry groups and think tanks. Disguised as the work of lawmakers, these so-called “model” bills get copied in one state Capitol after another, quietly advancing the agenda of the people who write them."
There exists a common complaint that corporations run the government. Here, we have a very clear example of corporations literally writing legislation. No wonder that 2014 paper that went viral found that "when the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."
For all our talk criticizing undemocratic governments like China or Russia, this really gives us cause to reflect on our model of government — how does a world filled with corporate interests affect the function of a representative democracy?
Here's a different perspective from our gut instinct of shock and condemnation:
The USA Today article mentions some support for the "model legislation" process:
"Not all model legislation is driven by special interests or designed to make someone money. Some bills were written to require sex offenders to register with law enforcement, while others have made it easier for members of the military to vote or increased penalties for human trafficking. Charles Siler, a former external relations manager for the Goldwater Institute, which has pushed copycat bills nationwide, said it's a fast way to spread ideas because with little modification lawmakers can adapt it to their state. “It’s not inherently bad, one way or the other," said Siler, who now works for a political action committee. “It depends on the idea and the people pushing it. Definitely people use model legislation to push bad ideas around." Allison Anderman, managing attorney at the pro-gun-control Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said model bills are simply how the system works now. “This is how all laws are written,” she said. “You’d be hard-pressed to find a law where a legislator sits in a chamber until a light bulb goes off with a new policy.”
At the surface, "model legislation" isn't "inherently bad." The idea that someone or some organization can write policy proposals and ask lawmakers to advocate for those proposals sounds like something that would be healthy for a representative democracy. After all, that's what active participation in a democracy looks like. I've even personally written policy memos and have ideas that I would love to share with lawmakers. I see the "model legislation" process as analogous to a printing press, a way to quickly distribute written ideas across many populations and geographies. If corporations are just using that "printing press" to push for certain ideas regarding public governance, what's so bad about that? What's the important distinction between an individual and a group of individuals? Doesn't this just help to quickly add to the "marketplace of ideas?" Everyone has ideas about what the law should be — can you blame corporations just because they are the only ones who are vocalizing their ideas?
There are many answers to these questions, but regardless, it's good food for thought. Let's think critically beyond our gut instincts.
USA Today came out with a bombshell piece detailing the depths of corporate influence on legislation in the United States. Essentially, corporations and special interest groups write up bills that get proposed by (and often passed into law by) lawmakers in state legislatures across the nation. Lawmakers get an easy way to get their names on bills (the bills are basically written for them) and get to build relationships with important special interest groups, while those groups get their interests advanced by lawmakers.
Here's the summary from USA Today: "Each year, state lawmakers across the U.S. introduce thousands of bills dreamed up and written by corporations, industry groups and think tanks. Disguised as the work of lawmakers, these so-called “model” bills get copied in one state Capitol after another, quietly advancing the agenda of the people who write them."
There exists a common complaint that corporations run the government. Here, we have a very clear example of corporations literally writing legislation. No wonder that 2014 paper that went viral found that "when the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."
For all our talk criticizing undemocratic governments like China or Russia, this really gives us cause to reflect on our model of government — how does a world filled with corporate interests affect the function of a representative democracy?
Here's a different perspective from our gut instinct of shock and condemnation:
The USA Today article mentions some support for the "model legislation" process:
"Not all model legislation is driven by special interests or designed to make someone money. Some bills were written to require sex offenders to register with law enforcement, while others have made it easier for members of the military to vote or increased penalties for human trafficking. Charles Siler, a former external relations manager for the Goldwater Institute, which has pushed copycat bills nationwide, said it's a fast way to spread ideas because with little modification lawmakers can adapt it to their state. “It’s not inherently bad, one way or the other," said Siler, who now works for a political action committee. “It depends on the idea and the people pushing it. Definitely people use model legislation to push bad ideas around." Allison Anderman, managing attorney at the pro-gun-control Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said model bills are simply how the system works now. “This is how all laws are written,” she said. “You’d be hard-pressed to find a law where a legislator sits in a chamber until a light bulb goes off with a new policy.”
At the surface, "model legislation" isn't "inherently bad." The idea that someone or some organization can write policy proposals and ask lawmakers to advocate for those proposals sounds like something that would be healthy for a representative democracy. After all, that's what active participation in a democracy looks like. I've even personally written policy memos and have ideas that I would love to share with lawmakers. I see the "model legislation" process as analogous to a printing press, a way to quickly distribute written ideas across many populations and geographies. If corporations are just using that "printing press" to push for certain ideas regarding public governance, what's so bad about that? What's the important distinction between an individual and a group of individuals? Doesn't this just help to quickly add to the "marketplace of ideas?" Everyone has ideas about what the law should be — can you blame corporations just because they are the only ones who are vocalizing their ideas?
There are many answers to these questions, but regardless, it's good food for thought. Let's think critically beyond our gut instincts.
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