Democracy or Plutocracy? —— The Essence of American Democracy

The United States calls itself the “beacon of free and democratic countries”. However, the last two US presidential elections, both featuring elderly candidates, actually reflected the plight of American democracy. Social disintegration and political polarization aggravate the failure of American democracy. The reason is the tight connection between the American political system and money, which is a disadvantage of American democracy. After many years of accumulation, the corrosive impacts of money on American democracy are increasing day by day, which affects elections at all levels and the operation of American democratic system.

Increasingly costly American elections

The presidential election in 2020 once again highlighted the importance of money. In 2020, the presidential election cost 14 billion dollars, with 6.6 billion US dollars invested in the presidential election and 7 billion in congressional elections, which created a new record. And in these huge investments, a lot of money was used in campaign advertising. The Biden campaign team spent 582 million dollars on television advertising, and the Trump campaign team spent 342 million on advertising in the past two years.

“Those who get money win” still holds true Biden, with a total campaign expenditure of more than 1 billion dollars, became the presidential candidate who spent the most from 2019 to 2020, far exceeding Trump’s. Biden won more than 80 million votes in this election, about more than 13 dollars per vote.

American presidential election costs more and more money. Since the beginning of the 21st century, election expenses of presidential candidates of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party have increased rapidly from 700 million dollars in 2004 to 1 billion in 2008, 2 billion in 2012, 2.4 billion in 2016 and 6.6 billion for the first time in 2020.

High election costs greatly raised the threshold of running for president, making it difficult for candidates who lack financial support to win. For example, Harris, the vice president-elect now and the first black woman who ran for president of the United States, announced in December last year that she would withdraw from the 2020 presidential election, saying that the main problem was fund-raising. On the other hand, after announcing his withdrawal from the US presidential election in April this year, the billionaire Michael Bloomberg turned to support Biden and invested 100 million dollars to help Biden’s campaign. Undoubtedly, this was to refuel Biden in the sprint stage of the presidential election.

Judging from the result of the presidential election, the persuasive power of money is even more obvious. According to statistics by the Brookings Institution, Biden won in 477 counties and Trump won in 2497 counties in this year’s presidential election. It seems that there is a big gap in the number of counties. However, the economic aggregate of Biden’s 477 counties accounted for 70% of the US economy, while Trump’s 2497 counties accounted for only 30%.

“Money first” is the theme of American political operation

In the United States, “money is the breast milk of politics”. Money controls all levels of American politics. The law not only stipulates legal political donations and political contributions, but also allows some gray zones for financial support. In 2014, the limit on individual contributions to all federal candidates and political party committees was lifted. This means that the rich can donate to many federal candidates at the same time, and they can also donate unlimited money to the political parties they support. In addition, there are many illegal “secret money” constantly entering US elections.

With the ease of the limitation of political donations in American law, it is more convenient for the rich to participate in American elections. The “super fundraiser” system can bypass the limitation on donation. It assigns the donations exceeding the limit to many people, making them meet the individual donation ceiling, and finally making all the money work for one candidate. The super political action committee can bypass some restrictions on political donations. In addition to providing political contributions directly to candidates and political parties, the rich and enterprises can also make political donations through the super political action committee. Seeing from the recent US general elections, the funds raised by super fundraisers and super action committees have increased significantly.

Except for political elections, interest groups and lobbying politics are also closely related to money. The more sufficient the interest groups’ funds are, the more capable they are to influence political operation. Generally speaking, interest groups influence American political decisions through lobbying. Interest groups are not allowed to provide material benefits to the politicians they are lobbying, but lobbying influences politicians’ policy choices through information. Money makes lobbying more effective.

Wealth gaps determine the quality of American democracy

Under the US democratic system, not all American citizens can participate in US political decision-making. The American voter qualification has something to do with wealth, and the difficult process of black people and women earning voter qualification illustrates that property is one of the important limiting factors.

Money has an important influence on the percentage of voter turnout in America presidential elections. Although the turnout rate in 2020 is the highest since 1900, it is only 67%. A considerable number of low-income groups did not vote. It is always the poor, the young, the uneducated and the ethnic minorities who are absent from the elections. In addition, eligible low-income groups are not keen on voting because they believe that no matter who is in the White House, he will not improve their economic situation. In fact, the polarization between the rich and the poor in American society is becoming more and more obvious. At present, the richest 10% in the United States control about 70% of the country’s wealth, compared with 60% ten years ago. On the other hand, wealth held by the lower 50% of the population continues to regress. Perennial poverty has reduced their interest in and influence on politics and presidential elections. The presidential election in the United States has completely become a political game for the rich.

Contributed by Ling Shengli, director of the Center for the Study of International Security, China Foreign Affairs University

Translated by Pan Meng