Corruption and American Politics By Michael A. Genovese and Vict ...

representatives have been bought off by contributors has significant corruption problems. In some ways the force of the Obama phenomenon in the 2008 presidential campaign, with its unprecedented success at grassroots mobilization and fund-raising, may both reflect such discontents and suggest that participatory democracy is enjoying a revival. Even though the key issue with which Obama launched his campaign—the war in Iraq—gave way to a wholly different agenda as economic problems deepened, a strong if diffuse sense that citizen involvement could and should produce great political change remained a primary theme. But the drawbacks of any such argument are at least equally evident: for all of its organizational and fund-raising acumen, the Obama campaign was still something of a crusade against politics, arising out of a period of unusually widespread dislike for the incumbent administration and its policies. The expectations it raised will be immensely difficult to fulfill via a political process designed from the beginning to thwart majority movements. That so many in the Obama tide were young and politically inexperienced only heightens the risk that early euphoria may lead to even deeper disillusionment.

In many societies around the world corruption involves truly massive appropriations of funds, both public and private, takeovers of regimes and agencies, and violence. In the United States, by contrast, corruption and reform more often exact their costs in the form of reduced competition in both politics and the economy. Rather than producing major upheavals, most American corruption protects existing advantages, contributing to trends that have made this self-styled land of opportunity one of the most rigid industrial societies in terms of prospects for upward mobility.⁶ Corruption contributes to and, even more to the point, is linked in public perceptions to broader patterns of reduced competition and responsiveness. Most years, incumbents in the House of Representatives are reelected at rates upwards of ninety-five percent—a figure that might make various politburos proud—while the Senate's figures (around eighty percent, over the long-term) are not far behind. The two major parties may bash each other with unseemly glee at a rhetorical level, but in most congressional elections only twelve or fifteen House