Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-25-2006
Abstract
This forthcoming book chapter defines the problem of diminished political competition, describes the relevant legal analogies concerning regulation of economic competition, and explains how the law shapes the competitive environment for elections. It also details how Supreme Court justices have sometimes tried to incorporate competitiveness concerns into their election law decisions in cases concerning ballot access, redistricting, campaign finance, party reform, and term limits. For the most part, constitutional law proves to be both a blunt and a coarse instrument for addressing excesses of partisan greed or self-interest, but justices of varying ideological leanings have invoked such concerns (usually in dissent) to highlight why one or another election law violates the Constitution.
Keywords
Competition, Election Law
Publication Title
The Marketplace of Democracy
Repository Citation
Persily, Nathaniel, "The Place of Competition in American Election Law, in the Marketplace of Democracy" (2006). All Faculty Scholarship. 92.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/92
Included in
Constitutional Law Commons, Election Law Commons, Law and Politics Commons, Law and Society Commons
Publication Citation
In The Marketplace of Democracy (Michael McDonald & John Samples eds., Brookins 2006)