Wednesday 29 October 2008

Long live the party political broadcast

As yachtgate brings British political funding into disrepute once again, the Obama campaign's ability to draw on an unprecedented number of small donors has been one of the novel features of the 2008 US campaign. Few would have predicted in recent years that fundraising in US politics could be seen as a positive part of political engagement and mobilisation, rather than a barrier to it.

Nick Anstead writes for New Statesman online on how some of the lessons of Small Dollar Democracy could translate into reform here. Nick is co-author of a Fabian freethinking paper, to be published tomorrow, on lessons from the US campaign.

As Obama prepares to break new ground by broadcasting a 30 minute 'closing argument' across the major networks in prime time, one thing we won't want to import is the US paid political advertising model.

Long live the party political broadcast!

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