How Money Runs Our Politics, Essay Example

Globally, elections are used in determining an official or representative; however, elections were formed in order to make a democracy possible.  “Even states that are not democratic wish to appear democratic, and holding elections is one of the easiest ways to display some of the forms of democracy”, with the purpose of allowing the people to choose who they want as a political leader. Communist countries, such as the Soviet Union also present elections with enormous amounts of money even though “the single candidate of the Communist Party was going to win each seat”.[1] This example correlates with Elizabeth Drew’s point in regard to the wealthy people donating to the politician of their choice. “Clinton’s side hoed to scare off serious rivals for the Democratic nomination by letting it be known that she planned to raise a staggering $2.5 billion for her campaign.” [2]  Although a democracy is built on the government system run by elected officials, it is different to escape the notion and ultimately wealth leads to the ability to be part of the election.

[1] W. Phillips Shively, Power and Choice: An Introduction to Political Science 14^th edition, (McGraw Hill, 2013), 198-199.

[2] Elizabeth Drew, “How Money Runs Our Politics,” New York Review of Books, 4 June 2015.