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| List of Illustrations | |
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| Introduction and Summary | |
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| Deficiencies of the Candidate-Centered Campaign Finance System | |
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| Enhancing the advantages of incumbents | |
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| Creating the appearance of corruption or buying influence | |
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| Favoring wealthy candidates | |
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| Discouraging high-quality people | |
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| Distracting elected officials from performing their functions | |
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| Promoting inefficient or wasteful use of campaign contributions | |
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| Empowering consultants, raising campaign costs, and reducing the policy significance of campaigns | |
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| Reducing useful information for voters | |
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| Enhancing the power of the "special interests" | |
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| Implementation of a Better System | |
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| How The Current Campaign Finance System Works For Incumbents And Against Parties | |
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| The Campaign Finance System and Incumbent Protection | |
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| A Century of "Reform" | |
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| Congressional Action | |
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| Incumbent Advantages in the Current Campaign Finance Regime | |
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| Expenditure limits | |
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| Contribution limits | |
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| Coordinated expenditures | |
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| Soft money and the BCRA | |
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| Disclosure requirements | |
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| Corporations, unions, and PACs vs. political parties | |
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| 527s, 501(c)s, and beyond | |
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| Public Financing of Political Campaigns | |
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| A Better Way? | |
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| Other Reforms: Would They Make Things Better Or Worse? | |
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| More of the Same-The Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Model | |
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| The Government Financing Model | |
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| Government Financing in Theory | |
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| Government Financing in Practice | |
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| Flawed laws | |
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| Presidential public financing | |
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| State and local programs | |
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| Federal Proposals for Public Funding | |
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| From the Framers-A Minimalist Approach | |
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| Other Proposals for Campaign Finance Reform | |
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| Free television time | |
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| Communication vouchers | |
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| Patriot dollars | |
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| Only patriot dollars | |
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| The donation booth | |
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| Instantaneous Internet disclosure | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| The Benefits Of Lifting Campaign Finance Restrictions On Parties | |
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| A More Competitive Electoral System | |
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| The Unique Role and Capabilities of Political Parties | |
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| Parties as Principal Funding Sources | |
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| Parties are efficient fundraisers | |
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| Candidates will prefer party funding | |
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| The appearance-of-corruption issue will remain for candidates raising their own funds | |
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| Candidates supported by parties will be more successful | |
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| Candidates supported by parties will be able to spend more time campaigning | |
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| The Benefits of Parties as Funding Sources | |
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| Reduced appearance of corruption | |
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| Reduced advantages for the wealthy | |
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| Better candidates | |
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| More time for lawmakers to do their jobs | |
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| More efficient use of campaign funds | |
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| Cheaper campaigns focused on parties' goals | |
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| More information for voters | |
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| Less power for special interests | |
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| Less gerrymandering | |
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| The Governance Benefits Of Party-Centered Campaign Finance | |
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| The American Attitude toward Political Parties | |
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| The Cycles of Party Power: A Brief History of Parties in the United States | |
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| Current Attitudes toward Parties | |
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| Political Parties and American Democracy | |
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| The Benefits of a Greater Policy Role for Parties | |
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| Continuity in policy | |
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| Choice in public policy | |
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| Fostering of accountability | |
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| Aggregation of special interests | |
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| Support for governmental initiatives | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Conclusion: Now, It's Up To Congress | |
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| Notes | |
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| Index | |
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| About The Authors | |