Business#3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business#3 - Essay Example sing topped out at $367 million for the presidency (not counting indirect party funding or expenditures by 527 committees), $7.3 million for a Senate seat, and $1.14 million for a House seat. (p. 150) The incredible amount is partly due to the changed process of the American political system wherein primaries have become the chief means by which candidates gets nominated and parties have shrunk in importance in the nominating process. This means that there is a necessity for, say a Presidential candidate, to campaign across the nation and before the voting public to win the political exercise where in the past candidates only had to woo party leaders. The campaign effort will be replicated in the election proper. The result of all these, particularly the latter information, is that political parties has no strong function in the American political system. The bulk of campaign funding for the candidates comes from sources other than party funds. And so when the candidate wins, his or her policies are his own. An interesting variable in this equation emerges: here the candidate is in effect more beholden to private donors that funded the winning campaign more than his or her party’s programs because they have a bigger contribution. There is a growing dependence by the American political leaders on moneyed individuals and organized interests such as corporations and unions which often expect returns for their favors. Therefore, in policy-making the influence of these contributors as a third-party is very significant. To illustrate this, we have the case of the Congress wherein there is a growing perception that private contributors, particularly the â€Å"political action committees† (PAC) are helping shift the political balance towards the right. Gordon Adams (1981) emphasized this as he wrote: A PAC contribution, in conjunction with other government relations work can help cement the relationship between industrial and the Congressional sides of the â€Å"iron