ABSTRACT
Money, as former California politician Jesse Unruh reputedly once said, is the "Mother's milk of politics". So much of politics, or at least campaigns and elections, involves money. It costs money to run for office or communicate a message, necessitating in most if not all parts of the United States. The fear about money and politics on one level is about corruption in a couple of ways. In examining the enforcement practices of both, significant time delays in enforcement question whether the use of formal sanctions by either deters illegal campaign practices. Bradley Smith seemed at one time to be the most forceful advocate of the disclosure-only regime. To a large extent, the evolution of Western capitalism and democracy have been inextricably connected. Robert Dahl describes this opposition as one where the political process is not autonomous and instead is controlled or limited in its autonomy by economic enterprises, market choices, and private investment decisions.
