Corruption in America : from Benjamin Franklin's snuff box to Citizens United

Summary: In 1785, Louis XVI presented Benjamin Franklin with a snuff box encrusted with diamonds and inset with the King's portrait. Americans believed it threatened to "corrupt" Franklin by altering his attitude toward the French in subtle psychological ways. In 2010, one of the most consequential Court decisions in American political history gave wealthy corporations the right to spend unlimited money to influence elections. With unlimited spending transforming American politics for the worse, warns Teachout, if the American experiment in self-government is to have a future, then we must revive the traditional meaning of corruption and embrace an old ideal.

Record details

ISBN: 9780674050402 (alk. paper)
ISBN: 0674050401 (alk. paper)
Physical Description: print
viii, 376 pages ; 22 cm
Publisher: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2014.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-358) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Four snuff boxes and a horse -- Changing the frame -- Removing temptations -- Yazoo -- Is bribery without a remedy? -- Railroad ties -- The forgotten law of lobbying -- The gilded age -- Two kinds of sticks -- The jury decides -- Operation Gemstone -- A West Virginia state of mind -- Citizens United -- The new snuff boxes -- Facts in exile, complacency, and disdain -- The anticorruption principle conclusion -- Appendix 1: Anticorruption constitutional provisions -- Appendix 2: Major nineteenth- and twentieth-century anticorruption laws.