We typically don’t think about just who is and who is not a constituent when we start talking politics. The term gets thrown around pretty freely along with conversations about political action committees and political parties as well as voters and other special interests, but in this case I think we need to be precise in our thinking because precision matters when we start talking about doing something about our political dysfunction.
There are many ways of defining a constituent, but all of them essentially boil down to someone who chooses an agent to act in their behalf. So when we have an election, those who select the agent are constituents. Even those who voted for “the other guy” are constituents because the agent was chosen on a majority rule basis. Further, even those who didn’t vote are constituents because they chose not to participate in the election for their own reasons in the same way as those who did choose to vote. The bottom line is that all eligible voters are constituents and anyone who is not an eligible voter is not a constituent.
As I point out in my book, A Broken Sausage Grinder; Is Our Government Fundamentally Flawed?, a constituency test would go a long way towards solving all of our problems with campaign finances. If only constituents could donate to a candidate, the factional interests would be out of the picture. If only constituents could donate to a candidate, all of the outsiders (people living outside the jurisdiction) would be out of the picture. The Presidential candidate could receive donations from eligible voters all over the country, but the Congressional Representative could only receive donations from eligible voters in his or her district. If an eligible voter wanted to donate huge sums to a candidate, it would be disclosed in accordance with applicable campaign finance reporting rules so the voters could decide if impropriety had occurred. As I said in the book, I even think that the cost of elections would be reduced if we imposed a constituency test on the campaign finance system.
Wait a minute. What about the factions? What about the political parties and the PACs, etc.? The Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case recognized these organizations as people and said their “freedom of speech” could not be infringed by limits on their political spending. I don’t think this is even a problem if we impose a constituency test because they would be free to advertise, but not to donate to the candidate. Imagine an elected official with a clear and unmistakable loyalty to his or her constituents – that is a dream worth pursuing.
The Sausage Grinder is Broken – will you help to fix it?
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