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| China releases US human rights record in 2002 （8） |
| CCTV.COM 2003-04-03 14:04:30 |
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III. Money－driven Democracy
Boasting itself to be the "model of democracy", the United States has been trying hard to sell to the world its mode of democracy.
In fact, American "democracy" has always been democracy of the rich, a small number of the population. Just as an article in the International Herald Tribute of the January 24, 2002 issue says, "The American problem is domination of politics by money."
The dominant role of money in American politics has been very obvious, and elections have in fact been turned into races of money.
During the midterm elections in 2002, spending on campaigning TV advertising amounted to 900 million US dollars, surpassing that for the presidential election in 2000.
According to an analysis made by the Associated Press based on the data from the Federal Election Commission, in the 2002 midterm elections 95 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives and 75 percent of the seats in the Senate went to candidates who had spent the most in campaigning.
In a report filed on August 30, 2002, AP said President George W. Bush, in order to win control of the House and the Senate, cashed in on his cachet to raise donations for midterm elections of his Republicans, and collected 110 million US dollars for three GOP candidates in Oklahoma and Arkansas, setting records in campaign cash raising （"Bush raises nearly $110 million for Republicans, setting record", Aug. 30, 2002, Sun）.
Election of judges in the United States is also like a race of money. In the year of 2000, judge candidates in only two states bought TV advertising, whereas during the midterm elections in 2002, chief justice candidates in nine states bought TV commercials. （more）
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Editor: Yang Feiyang Source:Xinhua
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