At least partial public financing of parties and elections is inescapable

States Martin Wolf (FT). We beg to disagree. While the purchasing of political power as currently demonstrated in the US is certainly objectionable we think that the introduction of direct democracy would put a major spanner into the works of lobbies. In conjunction with other reforms (term limits, less reliance on individual politicians such as Presidents, Chancellors to name just a few) power would be based on persuading the public rather than just bribing voters to tick a box once every so often to give nearly unlimited discretionary powers to certain parties.

The Rich are electing the next US President

The decision to allow give more freedom to corporations and similar entities to donate money to advocacy groups in a relatively unrestrained way illustratea that excessive reliance on a handful of judges in a Supreme Court does not necessarily result in good legislation. The 2012 Presidential Campaign is more than ever going to be decided by the spending power of the respective candidates and the contributions of the 1 per cent will in all likelihood be a decisive factor.