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There is a huge power asymmetry between a corporation and a natural person. If the former is able to voice their political opinion without constraint (e.g. Enr
by joubert 17y ago
There is a huge power asymmetry between a corporation and a natural person.
If the former is able to voice their political opinion without constraint (e.g. Enron spends, say $1 billion dollars in an election), they can effectively manipulate our democracy, drowning out citizens' political will. This is what just happened when the (conservative) Supreme Court overturned the limits on corporate spending in political campaigns.
Moreover, it now enables foreign corporations to manipulate election outcomes.
- yummyfajitas 17y agoLets be clear what we mean by "manipulate" and "drowning out citizens' political will": the corporation may use speech to persuade voters to vote a certain way. So it isn't so much "drowning out" citizen's political will as persuading them to exercise it in a certain way.
- joubert 17y agoIf an organization is able to purchase all the advertising space in a jurisdiction, they can effectively decide how people will vote. Consider the Prop 8 smear campaign in California by the Mormon Church.
- yummyfajitas 17y agoThe Mormon Church bought all the advertising space in CA? That's quite a feat.