Political campaign contribution rules, how’s your country handle them?

[ChiBitCTy]

Without question one of the biggest issues with the United States government is allowing for big corporations to fund politician campaigns without any contribution limits. In doing so, they are buying the politicians so that when they get in office, the politicians will then be obligated to return the favor.  This creates a political puppet. It’s 100% wrong, and what creates most of the corruption issues. Big corporations run this country, not politicians.

There is no debate that this should be stopped. Whether that means capping campaign contributions, or ending them all together for these big corporations.

Im curious to hear from those who live outside the US, how does your country handle this ?  Also curious if anyone has any ideas how to fix this, other than the ways I described.

[Dunamisx]

Without question one of the biggest issues with the United States government is allowing for big corporations to fund politician campaigns without any contribution limits. In doing so, they are buying the politicians so that when they get in office, the politicians will then be obligated to return the favor.

You just nailed it at the head, that's the simple definition of what is been transpared underneath, this political candidate you see have thier own caccus which they obey and answer their calls whenever needs be because they know all about how their emersion occur right from the beginning of their political career and this can only be stopped if we start voting for personality and not party, democracy government is like a clique of those in power rotating and recycling the leadership positions within their cycle.

There is no debate that this should be stopped

Fine and good everyone want the change but don't want to be a change agent, we all complain about bad governance yet we are the ones that still take bribes and voted them into office for another season, this can only be stopped when we realized that the people has more power than those elected in position if we are united with one voice for a change.

[BADecker]

United States government... what's that all about? I'm too busy earning a living and fighting with the wife and kids to go running after some science fiction story... like government.

I know some of my friends 'woke' up about it. But most of them are winding up with all kinds of family problems, and some of them even quit their jobs to get hired by that Soros guy. Then they go out and do bad stuff.

Me and the wife might have heated disagreements at times. But we don't want to go out and get a job with Soros and do bad things.

Besides, some of my other friends think we have the best government that money can buy!

[jrrsparkles]

Its actually happening everywhere in this world, if its not completely transparent as US then the funding will be off the records and politicians owe the favour in return when they get to the power and you know when it happens in the non transparent way the corporate funds every one on the race so they can ensure their authority no matter who wins it so the solution is bringing the strict laws against such funding but don't really think it will be effective as long as corruption exist.

[ChiBitCTy]

Its actually happening everywhere in this world, if its not completely transparent as US then the funding will be off the records and politicians owe the favour in return when they get to the power and you know when it happens in the non transparent way the corporate funds every one on the race so they can ensure their authority no matter who wins it so the solution is bringing the strict laws against such funding but don't really think it will be effective as long as corruption exist.

You’re absolutely right money will be given under the table but that would still be very limited. Politicians bank accounts, money their using for the campaigns etc are all traceable. These high level politicians get millions and millions in donations, that’s way to hard to give under the table.  Plus you could increase transparency requirements.

[BADecker]

As long as things like Bitcoin exist, there will be easy ways to transfer funds with few people being able to track it.

Consider. Who has enough ability to track money transfers worldwide? And how expensive is it to get a tracking group together to do the tracking? And how many hidden transfers are done while they are working on finding the people who did the first one.

Governments like Bitcoin. Makes it easy to hide money transfers from the little people, and from their own investigation agencies.

[ChiBitCTy]

As long as things like Bitcoin exist, there will be easy ways to transfer funds with few people being able to track it.

Consider. Who has enough ability to track money transfers worldwide? And how expensive is it to get a tracking group together to do the tracking? And how many hidden transfers are done while they are working on finding the people who did the first one.

Governments like Bitcoin. Makes it easy to hide money transfers from the little people, and from their own investigation agencies.

Im sure you know bitcoin is traceable. Bitcoin then has to be converted to fiat, so this will all be traceable. Im pretty sure they are required to show all finance paper trails, and if they spend millions out of nowhere with no paper trail, then how can they justify that. With strict oversight this would be impossible to do. (Im referring to just high level politicians)

[BADecker]

As long as things like Bitcoin exist, there will be easy ways to transfer funds with few people being able to track it.

Consider. Who has enough ability to track money transfers worldwide? And how expensive is it to get a tracking group together to do the tracking? And how many hidden transfers are done while they are working on finding the people who did the first one.

Governments like Bitcoin. Makes it easy to hide money transfers from the little people, and from their own investigation agencies.

Im sure you know bitcoin is traceable. Bitcoin then has to be converted to fiat, so this will all be traceable. Im pretty sure they are required to show all finance paper trails, and if they spend millions out of nowhere with no paper trail, then how can they justify that. With strict oversight this would be impossible to do. (Im referring to just high level politicians)

So, they know who Satoshi is, then?     

[ChiBitCTy]

As long as things like Bitcoin exist, there will be easy ways to transfer funds with few people being able to track it.

Consider. Who has enough ability to track money transfers worldwide? And how expensive is it to get a tracking group together to do the tracking? And how many hidden transfers are done while they are working on finding the people who did the first one.

Governments like Bitcoin. Makes it easy to hide money transfers from the little people, and from their own investigation agencies.

Im sure you know bitcoin is traceable. Bitcoin then has to be converted to fiat, so this will all be traceable. Im pretty sure they are required to show all finance paper trails, and if they spend millions out of nowhere with no paper trail, then how can they justify that. With strict oversight this would be impossible to do. (Im referring to just high level politicians)

So, they know who Satoshi is, then?     

Completely different story. Satoshi wasn’t running for political office (which obviously requires not being an anonymous person), transferring funds to exchanges to convert to fiat to then use to fund their campaign. Politicians have oversight and money transfers to pay for their campaign can all be tracked. If they spend millions of dollars with unknown sources or a paper trail, then they are going to know and require detailed information and proof where the money came from. 

[Gyfts]

Also curious if anyone has any ideas how to fix this, other than the ways I described.

So money can be considered a form of "speech" in the most liberal forms of democracy and I'm generally okay with it.

I agree with your idea of capping contributions, here are some that I'd also support:

Political contributions are all public, no anonymous donations.
Corporations cannot donate directly on behalf of a candidate, individuals of a corporation are of course exempt (ie board members).
Cap political contributions but also adjust yearly for inflation.
Contributions must be spent only towards campaign towards individual campaign expenses and cannot be stowed for other elections of other politicians.*

*Doing this would prevent one politician from having too much financial power. Say you're Donald Trump and have 100M USD in campaign donations that's ready to be injected into political campaigns of other people, you own everybody else.

Granted every country's laws are different, making a few basic stipulations you can have money in politics without too much problems.

Side note - I suppose there is nothing stopping an individual from registering a business, pouring his money or someone else's money into media campaigns on behalf of a candidate to bypass some of the stipulations I've made above, but I guess there could be laws to address this too.

[Mr.right85]

Unfortunately, these cannot be stopped. You can't have any candidate or party refuse a grant as that's what it could easily be described as but in the real sense, there are underlying terms to its giving.

It's just the Politics of governance and every selfish individual or corporation have got there pick, there interest and would surely extend a hand to get it which is so wrong. Sadly, there is little we can do except to hope that, it goes against the rule of law and that way, someone could act on it.
In my nation, years of looted funds plays most of the role, wth the godfathers and the corporations at another end, pulling there strings.

It creates a Web of issues as there are so many strings and all needs to be satisfied.
The best way to its resolution is ensuring a credible election where the people's choice wins. It would stimulate a governance that would be more about the people and less on sponsorship.

[Asiska02]

This occurs practically everywhere in the world and cannot be stopped because it is now considered a regular tradition. When someone is fighting for a position now, for example, you'll hear queries like, "Will he be loyal if he gets that position?" Loyalty entails repaying those who helped you attain to that position. If you can become their puppet, getting that particular political seat will be much easier.

This act thus destroys the government from within. Illegal activities will continue, and the government will be powerless to intervene or penalize defaulters because they were initially procured with their money. This is practically possible anywhere in the world, but your amount of loyalty to them determines how progressive your government will be.

[Cryptock]

This occurs practically everywhere in the world and cannot be stopped because it is now considered a regular tradition. When someone is fighting for a position now, for example, you'll hear queries like, "Will he be loyal if he gets that position?" Loyalty entails repaying those who helped you attain to that position. If you can become their puppet, getting that particular political seat will be much easier.

This act thus destroys the government from within. Illegal activities will continue, and the government will be powerless to intervene or penalize defaulters because they were initially procured with their money. This is practically possible anywhere in the world, but your amount of loyalty to them determines how progressive your government will be.

one of my Pakistan friends told us there is political chaos in there country for last 6 months.
but the things are going on - and other Srilankan friend also said the same. What is going on in the world is beyond my understanding

[Lordhermes]

Well, the president of my nation signed a new electoral law in early March of this year. Citizens now have renewed optimism thanks to the new law, and we are counting on the Electoral Commission to hold free and fair elections in 2023. The formal campaign started yesterday, and the electoral commission, working with the security services, has provided guidelines for the campaign and warned the political parties to run an issue-based campaign free of abuse and violence. I firmly believe that as citizens, it is our responsibility to uphold the new act's norms and regulations.

[Kavelj22]

The problem with this kind of interconnection is that political campaigns are closely linked to suspicious trolls and corrupt political money. Without that money, these campaigns are meaningless, because the capacity of the parties, according to the legal standards of the state, is not enough to garner enough support.

Unfortunately, the state, regardless of the extent of its influence, cannot control all the details of these funds, because many political parties have privately owned media channels that are ready to provide support implicitly without giving accounts of what they receive in exchange for that support.

[Iroh]

No doubt, campaign donations from anonymous entities pose a great threat to democracy in the United States.
Organizations donate massively to the candidate of its choice and in doing so, have bought the candidate.

The 2010 Supreme Court ruling between citizen United vs Fec which gives corporations and organizations the go ahead to donate to the political candidate of its choice. This has emboldened foreign entities which aren’t allowed to contribute in anyway to the country’s politics.

Foreign entities through dummy corporations can influence elections to its favor. Recently, president Biden called on republicans to vote in union with the democrats to vote on the Disclose act which would have required any and all political committees and groups to disclose donations of and more than $10,000 during an election period
No republican voted yes on it.

[Rockstarguy]

You are very right, and I think it is just the same way in every country. The party that has more sponsors tend to have more power over other political parties because of the amount of money they have. Cooperations donating for political parties or politicians is very wrong because if the politicians who are benefiting from these cooperation get elected do would want fund them back in double of what they were given. It makes the common men not to be able to participate in political positions because they won't be able do better campaign.

[OgNasty]

It's definitely an issue.  I believe it was Robin Williams who had the best take on this problem.  He once said, "politicians should wear sponsor jackets like NASCAR drivers."  I fully agree.  Instead of them saying this person is in bed with this industry or this guy is in love with this country, why not just show who is paying them and link that with their decisions.  Maybe then we'd stop seeing career politicians and more actual successful people in politics.  The idea that this country is run by mostly people who have never earned a dollar outside of what the government takes from it's citizens and gives them is unreal to me.  It's like they're a separate class of people that doesn't live within our societal structure.

[ChiBitCTy]

It's definitely an issue.  I believe it was Robin Williams who had the best take on this problem.  He once said, "politicians should wear sponsor jackets like NASCAR drivers."  I fully agree.  Instead of them saying this person is in bed with this industry or this guy is in love with this country, why not just show who is paying them and link that with their decisions.  Maybe then we'd stop seeing career politicians and more actual successful people in politics.  The idea that this country is run by mostly people who have never earned a dollar outside of what the government takes from it's citizens and gives them is unreal to me.  It's like they're a separate class of people that doesn't live within our societal structure.

Love this idea!

[Cryptock]

It's definitely an issue.  I believe it was Robin Williams who had the best take on this problem.  He once said, "politicians should wear sponsor jackets like NASCAR drivers."  I fully agree.  Instead of them saying this person is in bed with this industry or this guy is in love with this country, why not just show who is paying them and link that with their decisions.  Maybe then we'd stop seeing career politicians and more actual successful people in politics.  The idea that this country is run by mostly people who have never earned a dollar outside of what the government takes from it's citizens and gives them is unreal to me.  It's like they're a separate class of people that doesn't live within our societal structure.

These all are the power greedy people and they have nothing else to do but have the lust for power.
The end of these personalities are fatal - they get nothing in return when they are damaging peace of innocent people just to prove themselves the real leaders of the world,