Campaign contributions

This article shows two great examples of why interest groups and lobbying can be wasteful to a society and potentially harmful to a democracy. The article shows that with less regulation of campaign contributions, more and more is spent by large corporations in support of their favored candidate or party. This is a great demonstration of the wasted resources that are associated with lobbying. The article points out that the Republican Party has benefited greatly through higher amounts of support from corporations. This is likely because of the expectation of policies that would be helpful to the corporations if the Republican candidate is in office. Therefore the resources to influence the election now are a type of lobbying for a favorable position through the upcoming presidential term.

Furthermore, the concerns presented in the article are similar to one presented in Olson-- that the purpose of a democracy would be that each vote would count equally. However, the article shows that influence can be wielded in an election through interest group support and fundraising in an election season. The question remains as to whether campaign contributions can be considered a form of political speech or whether interest groups represent imbalance of one opinion in a democracy against another.