Honors Theses

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Economics

First Advisor

William Shughart

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

From the blunders of Theodore Roosevelt that initiated much of the debate on campaign finance reform to Bill Bradley's ideas on voting reform as a means to reform campaign finance, this is a topic that has inspired much debate and controversy. My hope is that throughout the following pages, through the history, opinions, and empirical evidence, the reader may formulate his or her own opinions on the good, evil, and necessity — or lack thereof — of reforming the system. History teaches where we have gone wrong. Econometric evidence tells us where we should go next. And opinions for future reform lead us in the right direction. Such reform seemingly has no end in sight as there will always be new restrictions necessary and new ways to evade them. While much of the statistical evidence was drawn from the last decade, its impact remains salient as the numbers may have increased but the ratios remain the same.

Accessibility Status

Searchable text

Included in

Economics Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.