Election Campaign Financing: The 1974 Reforms

Abstract

The Federal Campaign Act of 19741 marks a major turning point in the regulation of political finance in the United States. First, it implements to an unprecedented degree the principal reform approaches born in the Progressive era, by placing ceilings on campaign expenditures, by setting low limits on contributions and imposing strict limits on the aggregate donations of individuals, by strengthening already sweeping requirements for full disclosure of campaign finances, and by establishing an independent agency to enforce political finance regulations. Second, as a major innovation, the act introduces public financing of campaigns-a step taken earlier by other democracies and by the American Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, widely debated in the United States, but not enacted on the state or national level until the Watergate era.