The world-renowned political scientist and communications theorist Harold Lasswell referred to politics as “who gets what, when and how.” Politics for him, is a way of determining, without recourse to violence, who gets power or controls the state’s resources, and how they get them.
The “how” in Lasswell’s definition speaks to the place of “influence” in winning elections, and influence is naturally required to wield state power. Two important tools of influence, howbeit unconventional, in politics that further explain how power is captured are money; in which case, we have seen the continuous monetization of the electoral process by the political class. The second tool is to resort to extreme measures to demarket their political opponents hoping that the strategy would increase their own prospects at the poll.
Across the globe, money remains an integral part of democracy, as it is needed to conduct elections, lobby for electoral positions, and actually win…
