Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T12:34:47.721Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - American presidential elections since public funding, 1976–84

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2009

Get access

Summary

In the 1970s, the laws regulating federal election campaign financing in the United States underwent dramatic change. The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA), the Revenue Act of 1971, and the FECA Amendments of 1974, 1976 and 1979 thoroughly revised the rules of the game for political candidates, parties and contributors. In regard to presidential campaigns, the laws provided for public matching funds for qualified candidates in the pre-nomination period, public treasury grants to pay the costs of the two major parties' national nominating conventions, and public treasury grants for the major party general election candidates. They also established criteria whereby minor parties and new parties and their candidates could qualify for public funds to pay nominating convention and general election campaign costs.

The public funds were intended to help provide or to supply in entirety the money serious candidates need to present themselves and their ideas to the electorate. The public funds also were meant to diminish or to eliminate the need for money from wealthy donors and interest groups and thereby minimize opportunities for undue influence on officeholders by contributors. In the pre-nomination period, public funding was intended to make the nomination process more competitive and to encourage candidates to broaden their bases of support by seeking out large numbers of relatively small, matchable contributions.

The feasibility of public financing in presidential campaigns has depended on the taxpayers' willingness to earmark a small portion on their tax liabilities – $1 for individuals and $2 for married persons filing jointly – for the Presidential Election Campaign Fund by using the federal income tax checkoff.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×