Perspectives S36/Ep62 Do Politicians and Corporations Support Democracy?

Will America be able to keep its experiment in democratic republicanism going or will it slide into oligarchy, or worse? CIARA TORRES-SPELLISCY, Professor of Law at Stetson University, offers a chilling exposé of how corporations manipulate our political system for profit and offers concrete steps for consumers and investors committed to protecting our democracy in her new book, CORPORATOCRACY: How to Protect Democracy from Dark Money and Corrupt Politicians. In CORPORATOCRACY, Torres-Spelliscy explores how America’s privately funded campaign finance system, combined with corporate greed and a tilt towards authoritarianism within the Republican Party, have placed American democracy on a knife’s edge. Drawing on key Supreme Court cases, CORPORATOCRACY reveals how major US corporations have worked to undermine practices and laws upholding democratic principles like free and fair elections through shadowy tactics from bankrolling regressive politicians to funding ghost candidates with dark money. The motive? Profit.