How Much is Your Vote Worth?: The Unfairness of Campaign Spending Limits

In this brief book, Palda, senior economist at the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia, offers a spirited and somewhat effective libertarian critique of caps on campaign spending. Such measures, he argues convincingly, often hamper challengers and help incumbents, who can use the power of their offices to promote themselves. More dubious is his assertion that the advance of technology, allowing candidates to aim their messages at target audiences, will help people make sound political choices more than government-sponsored voter information programs. He pointedly calls government campaign subsidies ``political foodstamps'' and says that subsidies such as matchingg grants are biased in favor of established candidates and parties. He claims, a bit disingenuously, that contributions don't buy favors and downplays the fact that they do buy access. Though he establishes that rules limiting spending may influence elections more than big-money donations, his apparent acceptance of the status quo ignores the palpable need for better ways to produce a more informed public. (Mar.)