Bruce Ackerman and Ian Ayres have a neat idea for fixing campaign finance: Give every American an allotment of fifty "Patriot dollars," which they can direct to the candidate of their choice, and which will then result in a $50 grant to the candidate. Aside from the incredibly annoying name ("patriot dollars?" "patriot financing?"), it's an interesting idea that pairs a theory of public financing with an idea for increasing civic engagement. If you've got money to give, they theorize, you'll be more interested in figuring out who you can give it to. Maybe. For now, the simplest reform, and the one that fits best with actual trends in funding, are the small-donor democracy ideas Mark Schmitt elaborated in Democracy a year or two back. The idea, basically, is that private funding isn't the problem. The problem is the tilt towards big donors, bundlers, corporate PACs. Since those groups can give $2,000 easily, politicians are more responsive to them than to small donors. You could solve that by putting a match or a multiplier on small donations. If you gave $250, say, it would be matched to $500. Or maybe $500 would become $1,500. In any case, small donors would become more economically competitive with large donors. Given the internet's remarkable success in enabling small donor fundraising and enlarging the pool of people willing to give, such strategies seem even more plausible now than they did two or three years ago.
