Voter-Funded Media: Governance Reform for Democracies and Corporations

Abstract

Media reform can help solve the voters' free-rider problem in democracies and corporations. Uninformed voters cannot hold elected leaders accountable. Letting voters allocate collective funds to competing media organizations would avoid the misaligned incentives that limit political effectiveness of existing private- and public-sector media. Integrating related research in corporate governance, campaign finance and media reform, this article argues for funding allocated by consensus vote, rather than by the voucher method more often proposed. Voter funding of media has recently been implemented for the first time, in a university student council election. It is designed to spread to larger democracies and corporations, to improve their policies and social impacts.

Keywords: Democracy, media reform, campaign finance reform, corporate governance, free-rider problem

JEL Classification: D72, G34, H4, K22, L96