Campaign Finance Proposal [View all]

This idea, combined with the Stave the Beast idea might actually result in something positive. Not likely, but one can always dream.

"Under Mr. Lessig’s proposed plan every voting-age adult would receive a $50 voucher from the federal government (an idea similar to the “patriot dollars” advocated by the Yale law professor Bruce Ackerman and colleagues in 2003) that could only be used to contribute to qualified candidates for federal office. To be eligible, the candidate would agree to finance his or her campaign entirely with vouchers and private contributions of $100 or less from individuals in the candidate’s home state.

In Mr. Lessig’s view this system would be so attractive to candidates that it would crowd out the existing corrupt system, with no need to impose prohibitions or restrictions that conservatives view as violating free speech. He also estimates it would raise as much or more money than currently floods into campaigns.

His strongest argument undermines conservative demands for the complete deregulation of campaign finance. A system with no restraints empowers “capitalists to corrupt capitalism,” he contends. “So long as wealth can be used to leverage political power, wealth will be used to leverage political power to protect itself” against free market competition — the very system capitalists are pledged to support."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/books/republic-lost-campaign-finance-reform-book-review.html?_r=1&ref=books