One Person , One Vote , One Dollar ? Campaign Finance , Elections , and Elite Democratic Theory

The Supreme Court’s “one person, one vote” standard imposes a measure of equality onto any individual’s ability to influence an election’s outcome. The Court has been reluctant to attach this standard to other election resources, like campaign expenditures, despite the fear that money will bring about the appearance of impropriety in democratic decision making. Recently, the Court reasserted this position in Citizens United v. FEC, upholding a corporation’s right to expend resources freely in support of political candidates and issues, but the general proposition dates back to the Court’s pronouncement in Buckley v. Valeo, establishing the constitutional framework for contemporary campaign finance regulation. The framework first laid out in Buckley and developed subsequently continues to incur substantial criticism, usually advanced in the name of equality. But equality is a tricky value to maximize; interventions that cause people