Investigating Money in Politics: Axiology and Critical Theory

While some research efforts in American Politics still operate under the assumption that American Democracy is the world's best, there is much recent research dedicated to substantial flaws in the American version of the Democracy experiment.

The branch of American Politics that examines the impact of money in politics reflects a critical theory axiology. Axiology is the study of values, and regardless of what one's position is towards money in politics, these positions are built upon values. To those, like the majority of the Supreme Court in 2010, who believe that democracy should be aligned with capitalism, money in politics is just an expression of an individual's or political action committee's free-speech rights. This was more or less the ruling in "Citizens' United", which enabled corporations and individuals to form political action committees, which could in turn donate unlimited amounts of money to political campaigns.

To those like the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, money in politics taints democracy. Axiologically speaking, those in the camp of "money in politics is free speech" have no problem with the values embedded in unlimited political donations. Those in the latter group are driven by their values to expose and transform what they see as a harmful status quo.

Thus, while the "science" in the title "Political Science" is represented in much of the policy research and status of American Democracy research, there is clearly an important space for critical theory and advocacy in other areas of American Politics like campaign finance.