From the authors of Legislative Labyrinth: Congress and Campaign Finance Reform.

Elections, the basic mechanism of representative democracy, should be untainted by corruption and provide a platform for free speech. But running for office takes money—a lot of it, usually—which means campaign finance has become a pitched battle over the fundamental political values of free speech versus fair elections. With insiders' perspectives, Farrar-Myers and Dwyre tell the story of what it took to pass campaign finance legislation, provide analysis of the subsequent court action, and explore the regulatory and electoral outcomes of reform efforts. Limits and Loopholes is a story about incremental policymaking and inter-branch struggle, about institutional design and unintended consequences, about the influence of interest groups and the media, and about the health of our representative democracy. Bringing together discussions of core values and the policymaking process, this book serves as an excellent case study that traces an issue from inception, through legislation and litigation, and finally to implementation.

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1. Competing Values and the High Stakes of Campaign Finance Reform

2. Campaign Finance Reform in the 105th Congress: A Tale of Unorthodox Policymaking

3. Clearing a Pathway through the Labyrinth: Passing Campaign Finance Legislation

4. From the Halls of Congress to the Supreme Court: The Impact of Judicial Interpretation on Public Policy

5. Through the Regulatory Wringer: The Federal Election Commission Takes on BCRA

6. Elections in a Post-BCRA World

7. Values, Choices, and Consequences

“The issue of whether and how campaign money should be dealt with to preserve (or to recreate) free and fair elections is central to the republican form of government. It is an issue that the American political system since the 1970s has addressed without a great deal of success. In Limits and Loopholes, Victoria Farrar-Myers and Diana Dwyre succinctly analyze the most recent attempts to grapple with this frustrating problem. They thoroughly cover the issue from the seeds of reforming the reforms to the new loopholes created in the wake of the McCain-Feingold patched-up system. This is a book that nicely melds current political events with its broader historical and theoretical contexts.”

Victoria A. Farrar-Myers is associate professor of political science at the University of Texas at Arlington. Her research on the presidency, presidential-congressional relations, and campaign finance reform has been published in such journals as Political Research Quarterly and Congress & the Presidency as well as in numerous edited volumes. She also authored the book Scripted for Change: The Institutionalization of the American Presidency. She has received such honors as the American Political Science Association Congressional Fellowship, a research grant from the Dirksen Congressional Center, and several teaching awards.

Diana Dwyre is professor of political science and chair of the Department of Political Science at California State University, Chico. Her research on campaign finance, Congress, and political parties appears in several journals and in books, such as The Election after Reform and Financing the 2004 Election. She was the 1998 American Political Science Association Steiger Congressional Fellow and is cochair of the Campaign Finance Research Group.