The Republic of Virtue: How We Tried to Ban Corruption, Failed, and What We Can Do About It
Public corruption is the silent killer of our economy. We’ve spawned the thickest network of patronage and influence ever seen in any country, a crony capitalism in which business partners with government and transfers wealth from the poor to the rich. This is a betrayal of the Framers’ vision for America, and of the Constitution they saw as an anti-corruption covenant. Most Americans get it, and this explains the otherwise improbable rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. 

When a country is corrupt, legislative efforts to make things better can actually make them worse. That’s what has happened with our campaign finance laws, says the conservative, and not entirely without reason. We’ve criminalized political speech and sent the message that it’s unsafe to get involved in politics without a lawyer at one’s side. Donor disclosure requirements have also unleashed Internet mobs that attack political opponents. 

We’d be better off without any of them, Buckley argues in this provocative book. They’re a net with the curious feature that the big fish swim through safely while only the little fish are caught, and those with the wrong political beliefs. All such rules are a disaster, and should be replaced by a different set of laws that focus on crony capitalism and the nexus of legislators and lobbyists that prey on our economy.
1125792436
The Republic of Virtue: How We Tried to Ban Corruption, Failed, and What We Can Do About It
Public corruption is the silent killer of our economy. We’ve spawned the thickest network of patronage and influence ever seen in any country, a crony capitalism in which business partners with government and transfers wealth from the poor to the rich. This is a betrayal of the Framers’ vision for America, and of the Constitution they saw as an anti-corruption covenant. Most Americans get it, and this explains the otherwise improbable rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. 

When a country is corrupt, legislative efforts to make things better can actually make them worse. That’s what has happened with our campaign finance laws, says the conservative, and not entirely without reason. We’ve criminalized political speech and sent the message that it’s unsafe to get involved in politics without a lawyer at one’s side. Donor disclosure requirements have also unleashed Internet mobs that attack political opponents. 

We’d be better off without any of them, Buckley argues in this provocative book. They’re a net with the curious feature that the big fish swim through safely while only the little fish are caught, and those with the wrong political beliefs. All such rules are a disaster, and should be replaced by a different set of laws that focus on crony capitalism and the nexus of legislators and lobbyists that prey on our economy.
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The Republic of Virtue: How We Tried to Ban Corruption, Failed, and What We Can Do About It

The Republic of Virtue: How We Tried to Ban Corruption, Failed, and What We Can Do About It

by F. H. Buckley
The Republic of Virtue: How We Tried to Ban Corruption, Failed, and What We Can Do About It

The Republic of Virtue: How We Tried to Ban Corruption, Failed, and What We Can Do About It

by F. H. Buckley

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Overview

Public corruption is the silent killer of our economy. We’ve spawned the thickest network of patronage and influence ever seen in any country, a crony capitalism in which business partners with government and transfers wealth from the poor to the rich. This is a betrayal of the Framers’ vision for America, and of the Constitution they saw as an anti-corruption covenant. Most Americans get it, and this explains the otherwise improbable rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. 

When a country is corrupt, legislative efforts to make things better can actually make them worse. That’s what has happened with our campaign finance laws, says the conservative, and not entirely without reason. We’ve criminalized political speech and sent the message that it’s unsafe to get involved in politics without a lawyer at one’s side. Donor disclosure requirements have also unleashed Internet mobs that attack political opponents. 

We’d be better off without any of them, Buckley argues in this provocative book. They’re a net with the curious feature that the big fish swim through safely while only the little fish are caught, and those with the wrong political beliefs. All such rules are a disaster, and should be replaced by a different set of laws that focus on crony capitalism and the nexus of legislators and lobbyists that prey on our economy.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781594039713
Publisher: Encounter Books
Publication date: 11/28/2017
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 7 MB

About the Author

F.H. Buckley is a Foundation Professor at George Mason University’s Scalia School of Law. He is a frequent media guest and has appeared on Morning Joe, CNN, Rush Limbaugh, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, Newsmax, Radio France, the CBC, NPR, and many others.

He is a Senior Editor at The American Spectator, a columnist for the New York Post, and has written for the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, US News, National Review, the American Conservative, the New Criterion, Real Clear Politics, the National Post, the Telegraph, amongst many others.

His most recent books are The Way Back: Restoring the Promise of America (Encounter Books, April 2016) and The Once and Future King (Encounter Books, 2015).

Table of Contents

I The United States of Corruption

1 Our Machiavellian Moment 3

Pay-for-Play Networks

Republican Virtue

2 Excusing Corruption 11

The Mutual Protection Association

The Polemarchist

The Apologist

3 The Silent Killer 20

Rent-Seeking

Measuring Corruption

The Cost of Corruption

The Rule of Law

4 The Dream of a Virtuous Republic 29

The Separation of Powers

Federalism

Money

Three Proposals

II The Separation of Powers

5 An Anticorruption Covenant 41

The Constitutional Convention

Filtering Virtue

Choosing a Virtuous President

6 What Corruption Meant to the Framers 53

Republican Virtue

Extensive Virtue

Governing Above Faction

Private Virtue

Religious Virtue-and Vice

7 The Promise of Virtuous Government 71

Reining In the Presidency

Electing a President

Impeachment

8 How Did That Work Out? 81

Minoritarian Misbehavior

The Democratic Presidency

Power and Corruption

A Grim Logic

III Federalism

9 Federalism and Corruption 95

Bigness and Badness

Smallness and Badness

10 The Mississippi Story 104

Mississippi Burning

Mississippi Cashes In

11 Designing a Virtuous Justice System 113

The Genius of the Framers' Constitution

Genius Frustrated

12 The Silver Bullet 123

The Way Back

State Judicial Elections

A Judicial Aristocracy

IV Money

13 Bribes 135

The Ordeal of Francis Bacon

Corruption of the Heart

The Limits of Bribery Law

14 The Republic of Defection 147

The Dismal Dialectic

Crimes of Democracy

The U-Curve

15 Policing Crony Capitalism: What Doesn't Work 159

Disclosure Requirements

Contribution Limits

Spending Caps

16 Three Reforms 173

Mandated Anonymity

Suspect Donors

Chinese Walls

17 The Heavenly City of the Enlightened Reformer 189

Appendix A The Determinants of Public Corruption 195

Appendix B Fairness in Interstate Litigation Act 200

Acknowledgments 203

Notes 205

Index 247

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