Last week, I represented the Center for Responsive Politics at a conference that examined whether addressing the issue of money and influence in public decision-making could restore trust in government. The event was sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based group that brings member countries (there are 34) together to discuss policy issues relating to economic progress and democracy. Although other OECD forums have dealt extensively with the topics of public governance and corruption, this was OECD’s inaugural session on campaign finance and election spending.

As CRP’s representative, I wasn’t there to advocate for or against the role of money in politics, but to highlight the role that organizations like ours can play in making the connection between politicians and their money, on the one hand, and the public, on the other. Relative to other countries, the U.S. system is highly evolved when it comes to disclosure. Some speakers described how far their own countries are from implementing even basic transparency initiatives and others said that fear of organized crime was a hindrance to their systems. And by no means is it assumed in most countries, as it generally is in the U.S., that the public has a right to know the details of how politicians fund their campaigns.

Among the various panelists and attendees, the U.S. system was spoken of admiringly for its transparency — but also apprehensively, because the big dollars and increasing complexity that mark how we operate are sometimes viewed as the future of campaign finance systems elsewhere.

Much of the talk focused on what role regulators should play: How much transparency is appropriate and how should it be enforced? In the U.S. we’ve been at this, in earnest, since the early 1970s, while many European countries are just beginning to create firm rules about limiting campaign donations and mandating disclosure. Of course, many countries have some form of public financing for elections, but almost all have concerns about spending by outside groups.

What can CRP offer this discussion? One thing is the experience of bridging the gap between regulators and the public. In the U.S., the Federal Election Commission provides the mechanism for disclosure and handles some enforcement (other agencies are often involved and with the rise of politically active nonprofits, the FEC is increasingly just one part of the process), but it hasn’t been the FEC’s main mission to analyze the facts or explain why any of it matters. And many would argue it shouldn’t be a government agency’s role to do that.

It is, however, what we do, and what we’ve been doing for 30 years now. We take the data that is collected by the regulators and we help make it relevant to everyone — regular citizens wanting more information about an issue or a politician, voters trying to decide how to cast their ballot, journalists investigating a story, or someone from “inside the Beltway” backgrounding an issue or scoping out an opponent. As I explained in my OECD presentation, we’re not in the business of helping the public trust politicians; we’re in the business of helping the public make informed judgments about politicians, and being able to trust those judgments.

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We’ll keep you posted as the multinational conversation unfolds.

Follow Russ on Twitter: @russchoma

Image: OECD headquarters via OECD.



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