The Case for PACs
by Herbert Alexander
Excerpted from Public Affairs Monograph
1. PACs increased participation in the political process. The reform efforts that spawned PACswere designed to allow more voices to be heard in determining who will become our nation’s electedofficials. Thanks in part to PACs, that goal has been achieved.
Although it is difficult to determine how many individuals now participate in the politicalprocess through voluntarily contributing to political action committees, some useful information isavailable. The survey of company PACs by Civil service, Inc., found that in the 1979-1980 electioncycle more than 100,000 individuals contributed to the 275 PACs responding to the survey, and thatthe average number of donors to those PACs was 388…
Surveys taken between 1952 and 1976 indicate that from 8 to 12 percent of the total adultpopulation contributed to politics at some level in presidential election years, with the figure standingat 9 percent in 1976. According to a survey by the Center for Political Studies at the University ofMichigan, however, 13.4 percent of the adult population-about 17.1 million persons-gave tocandidates and causes during the 1979-1980 election cycle. Survey data suggest that the increaseregistered in 1980 is due to the increased number of persons giving to interest groups.
2. PACs allow individuals to increase the impact of their political activity. PACs and their interestgroup sponsors not only encourage individual citizens to participate in the electoral process, theyprovide them with a sense of achievement or effectiveness that accompanies taking part in politicalactivity with like-minded persons rather than merely acting alone.
3. PACs are a popular mechanism for political fund raising because they respect the manner in
which society is structured. Occupational and interest groups have replaced the neighborhood asthe center of activities and source of values and the ideologically ambiguous political parties as asource of political action. Individuals seem less willing to commit themselves to the broad agenda ofthe parties; they are interested mainly in single issues or clusters of issues. PACs, organized on thebasis of specific occupational or socio-economic or issue groupings, allow individuals to join withothers who share their values and interests and to undertake action to achieve the political goals theyperceive as most important to them.
4. PACs and the interest groups they represent serve as a safeguard against undue influence by
the government or by the media. By energetically promoting their competing claims and views,such groups prevent the development of a single, official viewpoint or a media bias. Theydemonstrate the lively pluralism so highly valued and forcefully guaranteed by the framers of theConstitution.
5. PACs have made more money available for political campaigns. By helping candidates pay therising costs of conducting election campaigns, PACs help to assure the communication of thecandidates’ views and positions and thus clarify campaign issues. They also encourage individualswithout wealth to run for office.
6. PACs have contributed to greater accountability in election campaign financing. Corporationsare legitimately concerned about public policy, but prior to the FECA they were uncertain about thelegality of providing financial support to candidates who would voice their concerns. That manycorporations resorted to subterfuges to circumvent law is common knowledge. By sanctioning theuse of PACs by corporations, the law has replaced the undisclosed and often questionable form ofbusiness participation in politics with the public and accountable form practiced by corporate andother business related PACs today…