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Show The Salt Lake Tribune Hidden Consequences -Of Campaign Reform BY ANDREW MSCHOCKET AA5 OPINION © Sunday, April 7, 2002 serve as umbrellas for many different constituencies in- welfare passed in 1995 and edu by strengthening interest groups at the expense of par ties, comes with a prize and a crease the possibilities for common ground on important legislation. Major reforms on price: it will reduce partisan bickering, but at the cost of bipartisan cooperation. Andrew M. Schocket is an assistant professor of history at Bowling Green State University political parties. That will also HISTORYNEWS SERVICE The cempaign finance re Parties will be able to fumnel far Jess money te presidential and form bill passed by Congress Will not just affect the influence congressional candidates than in the past and so have less influence over them. National parties will be weaker. Madison feared the rise of national of money on American politics. By weakening parties but effectively jeaving interest groups alone, it will promote the discussion of issues over party politics bat make political compromise even more dif- EAM ZA! vert national policy for its own ends or trample upon the rights ficult than it is today. In 1787, when James Madison, the Constitution's greatest of the minority. The undermining of national parties is a serious matter Because of their regional, ethnicand ideo- architect, was campaigning to get the Constitution ratified as logical diversity, the parties the lawof the land, he argued that competition among many interest groups was the genius of the American political sy tem. The republic's diver Madison reasoned, would pre- have nearly always been among the few truly national American institutions. But in the late 1850s, the mastly southern Democrats supported vent slavery's political parties from dominating the country for their own ends. But Madison ignored the merits of national parties: the country’s greatest crisis, the Civil War, occurred partly because the two-party system broke down, failing to contain the explosive issue of slavery. Today, interest groups com- pete with Democratic and Re publican parties to influence public policy. The current campaign finance bill, by tippingthe scales toward interest groups, will encourage political action on individual issues but thwart potential national compromises. To reduce big-money do hors’ access to and influence over politicians, the legislation strictly limits the amount of money individuals, corporations, unions and other organizations can give to the national ical expan sion and the mostly northern Republicans did not. The national parties essentially be cameregional groups debating the demands of a single interest: that of slaveholders. Be cause this issue dominated all others, compromise on any became impossible. Like slavery im the 1850s, contemporary guestions such as abortion and capital punishment defy compromise. With- out strong parties with members on either side of these issues, such controversies would dominate the legislative agenda and polarize political debate. National political consensus would be impossible, and so would meaningful legislation. Robust, varied parties.are as essential to the American political system as interest Hurry! Offer ends April 30th OR VISIT OUR SHOWROOM RALPH, TED, SHAWN & SOMEDAY MASON GALL TODAY FOR A FREE ESTIMATE MOW ALMOST 4 GENERATIONS OF AWARD WINWING SERVICE 621 W. 7300 S. M-F 8-6. SAT aaaeeSeaAg Wa groups. National parties that ALLERGY Pear If you are currently experiencing both ALLERGY and MILD TO MODERATE ASTHMA symptoms, you may qualify to participate in an investigational research drug study. 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