Case for publicly funded elections
March 15, 2019
Here is a simple argument for why publicly funded elections are ultimately beneficial for tax payers
Internet advertising business model
Those familiar with the world of Internet based businesses are well acquainted with the maxim - "If you are not paying, you are the product". This was often used to explain the business model of internet advertising businesses like Google and Facebook. These platforms were free for the users. But they don't see their users as customers. Rather they use their users' attention as the product which they sell to their actual paying customers - advertisers.
Election funding
Contesting elections in a democracy costs money for the political parties. If the tax paying voters are not paying for it, then they are mere products being sold to the actual people who are paying for it - big businesses. Since, big businesses are the only segment with the capacity to pay for such a large project. The political parties' job is to take the money from the big businesses and manipulate the public to vote for policies that serves the interests of these paying big businesses. Votes i.e. the voting public is the product being transacted over, big businesses are the customers buying the vote to get the power to enact favourable policies, and political parties are analogous to the internet businesses facilitating the transaction for a fee.
Publicly funded elections
Publicly funded elections changes this dynamic. The big business are then just another voter in the system. Political parties fight to please the most number of voters they can and make the policy the voters want so that they can retain most amount of funding from the same public. It brings the whole system closer to true democracy.
Those familiar with the world of Internet based businesses are well acquainted with the maxim - "If you are not paying, you are the product". This was often used to explain the business model of internet advertising businesses like Google and Facebook. These platforms were free for the users. But they don't see their users as customers. Rather they use their users' attention as the product which they sell to their actual paying customers - advertisers.
Election funding
Contesting elections in a democracy costs money for the political parties. If the tax paying voters are not paying for it, then they are mere products being sold to the actual people who are paying for it - big businesses. Since, big businesses are the only segment with the capacity to pay for such a large project. The political parties' job is to take the money from the big businesses and manipulate the public to vote for policies that serves the interests of these paying big businesses. Votes i.e. the voting public is the product being transacted over, big businesses are the customers buying the vote to get the power to enact favourable policies, and political parties are analogous to the internet businesses facilitating the transaction for a fee.
Publicly funded elections
Publicly funded elections changes this dynamic. The big business are then just another voter in the system. Political parties fight to please the most number of voters they can and make the policy the voters want so that they can retain most amount of funding from the same public. It brings the whole system closer to true democracy.