Abstract
This chapter is an essay in political economy—specifically, the political economy of power. It is an examination of how the “Golden Rule of Politics” (cited above) really works. It is, therefore, an exploration of the impact of economic power on political processes.
Economics as a separate science is unrealistic, and misleading if taken as a guide in practice, his one element—a very important element, it is true—in a wider study, the science of power.—Bertrand Russell
The Golden Rule of Politics—he who has the gold, rules.—Mark Green
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Notes
John Kenneth Galbraith, The Anatomy of Power (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983), pp. 113–114.
C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956), p. 108.
Randall Bartlett, Economic Foundations of Political Power (New York: The Free Press, 1973), p. 156.
Galbraith, Anatomy..., p. 5.
Ibid., p. 6.
Nicholas Mercuro, “Contributions to Law and Economics: A Survey of Recent Books,” The Journal of Economic Education Vol. 17, No. 4, Fall, 1986, p. 297.
Warren J. Samuels, “Welfare Economics, Power, and Property,” in Warren J. Samuels and A. Allan Schmid (Eds.), Law and Economics: An Institutional Perspective (Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishing, 1981), p. 44.
The Wall Street Journal April 28, 1987, p. 4.
B.F. Skinner, Beyond Freedom and Dignity (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971), p. 215.
Mills, The Power Elite pp. 346–347.
Elizabeth Drew, Politics and Money (New York: Macmillan, 1983), p. 146.
Sidney Blumenthal, The Rise of the Counter-Establishment (New York: Times Books, 1986), p. 32.
William J. Lanouette, “The ‘Shadow Cabinets’—Changing Themselves as They Try to Change Policy,” National Journal Vol. 10, Feb. 25, 1978, p. 296.
Dom Bonafede, “Issue-Oriented Heritage Foundation Hitches Its Wagon To Reagan’s Star,” National Journal Vol. 14, March 20, 1982, p. 507.
The Heritage Foundation, 1986 Annual Report p. 2.
Robert K. Landers, “Think Tanks: The New Partisans?” Editorial Research Reports Vol. 1, No. 23, June 20, 1986, p. 467.
Bonafede, “Issue-Oriented...,” p. 502.
Ibid., p. 504.
Ibid.
Micheal R. Gordon, “Right-of-Center Defense Groups—The Pendulum has Swung Their Way,” National Journal Vol. 13, No. 4, January 24, 1981, p. 129.
Blumenthal,...Counter-Establishment p. 48.
Ibid. pp. 306–308.
Ibid., pp. 49–50.
A useful discussion of the growth and influence of conservative think tanks is contained in Thomas Byrne Edsall, The New Politics of Inequality (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1984), pp. 117–120.
Blumenthal,...Counter-Establishment pp. 48–50.
Gary C. Jacobson, “Money in the 1980 and 1982 Congressional Elections,” in Michael J. Malbin (Ed.), Money and Politics in the United States (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, Inc., 1984), p. 65.
Ibid.
Michael Malbin, “Introduction,” in Malbin (Ed.), Money..., pp. 7–9.
Marc Leepson, “Campaign Finance Debate,” Editorial Research Reports Vol. 1, No. 12, March 29, 1985, p. 235.
The Federal Election Commission, Common Cause, and The Congressional Quarterly Press are prolific sources of information on the role of PAC’s in campaign finance. Other campaign “watchdogs” such as the Public Affairs Council, Citizens’ Research Foundation, and the League of Women Voters have also sponsored and published helpful PAC information.
Leepson, “Campaign Finance Debate,” p. 239, and Federal Election Commission, Record February, 1987, p. 10.
Michael J. Malbin and Thomas W. Skladony, “Appendix: Selected Campaign Finance Data,” in Malbin, Money..., p. 296.
Jacobson, “Money...,” p. 39.
Common Cause, April 7, 1987, press release.
Ibid.
Margaret Ann Latus, “Assessing Ideological PACs: From Outrage to Understanding,” in Malbin, Money..., p. 143.
Ibid.
Common Cause, April 7, 1987, press release.
Ibid.
Jacobon, “Money...,” p. 45.
Theodore J. Eismeier and Philip H. Pollock III, “Politics and Markets: Corporate Money in American National Elections,” British Journal of Political Science Vol. 16, June, 1986, p. 292 (footnote 18).
Fred Seigel, “‘Republicanizing’ the Democrats,” Dissent Summer, 1985, p. 301.
Thomas Byrne Edsall, The New Politics of Inequality (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1984), pp. 21–22.
Drew, Politics..., p. 5.
This point is made cogently in Grant McConnell, Private Power and American Democracy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967), pp. 129–130.
Campbell R. McConnell, Economics 10th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986), p. 710.
Edsall, The New Politics..., p. 113.
James Q. Wilson (Ed.), The Politics of Regulation (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1980) offers a set of analytical papers on a variety of regulatory activities. Wilson’s summary chapter offers a “balanced” appraisal of the regulatory effort.
G. McConnell, Private Power..., p. 287.
George Stigler, “The Theory of Economic Regulation,” Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science Vol. 2, Spring, 1971, p. 3, as quoted in Wilson, Politics..., p. 358.
Walter Adams and James W. Brock, The Bigness Complex (New York: Pantheon Books, 1986), p. 228.
Henry L. Bretton, The Power of Money (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1980), p. 323.
G. McConnell, Private Power..., p. 289.
Quoted in Michael Pertschuk, Revolt Against Regulation: The Rise and Pause of the Consumer Movement (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), p. 60.
Pertschuk cites Thomas Edsall, “Business Learns to Play New Politics,” Baltimore Sun February 25, 1980, p. A7, as his source.
Henry J. Friendly, The Federal Administrative Agencies (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962), p. 97, as quoted in G. McConnell, Private Power..., p. 286.
See, for example, discussion of political influence in the selection of Anne Gorsuch as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in Jonathan Lash, et al., A Season of Spoils; The Reagan Administration’s Attack on the Environment (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984), pp. 9–14.
Adams and Brock, The Bigness Complex p. 260.
Discussion of subversion of environmental regulations, for example, can be found in Lash, et al., Season of Spoils..., and in Friends of the Earth, Ronald Reagan and the American Environment (San Francisco: Friends of the Earth, 1982).
Bryan Burrough, “Mine-Safety Agency Disbands Sleuth Squad Despite Its Big Success,” The Wall Street Journal June 1, 1987, pp. 1 and 10.
Ibid., p. 1.
Drew, Politics and Money p. 21.
Lash, Season of Spoils p. 42.
Edsall, The New Politics... p. 119.
Ibid., p. 216.
Ibid., p. 217.
Adams and Brock, The Bigness Complex p. 339.
Ibid., pp. 274–275.
One such helpful survey is Nicholas Mercuro and Timothy P. Ryan, Law, Economics and Public Policy (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, Inc., 1984).
Ibid., p. IX.
Certainly that is one inference one may draw from John R. Commons, The Legal Foundations of Capitalism (New York: Macmillan, 1924).
Warren J. Samuels, “Interrelations Between Legal and Economic Processes” in Samuels and Schmid (Eds.), Law and Economics..., p. 100.
R. H. Coase, “The Problem of Social Cost,” The Journal of Law and Economics Vol. 3, October, 1960, pp. 1–44.
Richard A. Posner, Economic Analysis of Law (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1972).
Mark Kuperberg and Charles Beitz (Eds.), Law, Economics, and Philosophy: A Critical Introduction, with Applications to the Law of Torts (Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allanheld, 1983), p. 5.
Ibid., p. 6.
Jules L. Coleman, “The Economic Analysis of Law,” in J. Roland Pennock and John W. Chapman (Eds.), Ethics, Economics, and the Law (New York: New York University Press, 1982), pp. 96–97.
Robert H. Bork, The Antitrust Paradox (New York: Basic Books, 1978), pp. 206–206, as quoted in Adams and Brock, The Bigness Complex pp. 158–159.
Paul Burrows and Cento G. Veljanovski (Eds.), The Economic Approach to Law (London: Butterworth, 1981), p. 134, as quoted in Nicholas Mercuro, “Contributions...,” p. 304.
Warren J. Samuels, “Welfare Economics...,” p. 30.
H.L. A. Hart, “American Jurisprudence Through English Eyes: The Nightmare and the Noble Dream,” Georgia Law Review Vol. 11, 1977, pp. 988–989,
as quoted in E.J.P. Mackaay, Economics of Information and Law (Montreal: Groupe de Recherche en Consommation, 1980), pp. 94–95.
Bartlett, Economic Foundations..., p. 196.
Professor Bruce A. Ackerman, as quoted in Paul M. Barrett, “A Movement Called Law and Economics Sways Legal Circles,” The Wall Street Journal August 4, 1986, p. 1.
Ibid. pp. 1 and 14.
Mills, The Power Elite, p. 6.
Samuels, “Welfare Economics...,” p. 34.
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Petr, J.L. (1988). Economic Power and the Political Process. In: Peterson, W.C. (eds) Market Power and the Economy. Recent Economic Thought Series, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2673-8_6
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