MMN Event This Monday: Politics, Corruption, and Campaign Finance

The Modern Money Network presents Politics, Corruption, and Campaign Finance: Electoral Machines as part of its “Money” seminar series.

WHEN

Monday, September 14, 12:00 PM EDT.

WHERE

William and June Warren (“Big Warren”) Hall, Room L-107 (Basement), Columbia University between 115th Street and 116th Street on Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY. See map for details.

SUMMARY

This seminar will explore the role of money in the political process, focusing in particular on how different campaign finance mechanisms facilitate and/or hinder the authentic expression of democratic will. Questions to be addressed include:

What is political corruption? How does it manifest itself today through the two-party electoral system?

How have monetary and electoral systems shaped each other throughout history?

What is the appropriate relationship between the money power and representative democracy?

CORE READING

Z. Teachout, 2009, The Anti-Corruption Principle, Cornell Law Review

Z. Teachout, 2011, Facts in Exile: Corruption and Abstraction in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Loyola University Chicago Law Review

T. Ferguson, P. Jorgensen, J. Chen, 2013, Party Competition and Industrial Structure in the 2012 Elections: Who’s Really Driving the Taxi to the Dark Side?, International Journal of Political Economy

T. Ferguson, P. Jorgensen, J. Chen, 2015, How Money Drives Congressional Elections: More Evidence, Institute for New Economic Thinking Annual Conference

M. Stoller, 2011, How the Federal Reserve Fights, Naked Capitalism

VIDEO

The seminar will be livestreamed on our homepage www.modernmoneynetwork.org, and a recording will be placed there after the event.

Zephyr Teachout is an Associate Professor of Law at Fordham Law School, CEO of Mayday PAC, a Democratic candidate for the Governor of New York. She is a renowned expert in the legal history of corruption, and a renowned advocate of publicly funded elections. She previously served as the National Director of the Sunlight Foundation, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, the Director of Internet Organizing for Dean for America (Howard Dean’s presidential campaign), and as the Co-Founding Executive Director of the Fair Trial initiative. Zephyr also clerked for Chief Judge Edward R. Becker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

 

Dr. Paul Jorgensen is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas, Pan-American, and Non-Resident Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. His research concerns campaign finance and political parties in the United States, and has appeared in the International Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics, Political Research Quarterly, and the Policy Studies Journal.

 

 

 

Matt Stoller is a political strategist with a focus on Wall Street, and a former Senior Policy Advisor to Congressman Alan Grayson, where he worked to reform the Federal Reserve. From 2011-2012, he was a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and an editor of the financial siteNaked Capitalism. He also starred in “Brand X with Russell Brand” on the FX network, and was a writer and consultant for the show. Prior to that, he produced for MSNBC’s The Dylan Ratigan Show.

 

 

 

MODERATOR

Jennifer Rodgers is the Executive Director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity at Columbia Law School. Prior to joining CAPI, Jennifer worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the the Southern District of New York, where she held a number of positions, including Deputy Chief Appellate Attorney, Chief of the Organized Crime Unit, and Chief of the General Crimes Unit. Jennifer previously worked as a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, and also clerked for federal district court judge Stanley A. Weigel of the Northern District of California.