Will Wilkinson defends the propriety of allowing foreign citizens and corporations to finance campaign ads in the US:
The United States is no hermit kingdom. If America decides it is going to invade a place, impose sanctions, or otherwise meddle in another country's businessand it has been known to do such thingsit only seems fair to hear what others around the world think about it. Will American sanctions hurt a Belgian business? Will an American invasion lead to the deaths of allied Australian troops? Let's hear about it! The performance of the world's largest national economy naturally reverberates across the globe. And foreign-owned corporations are an integral part of the American economy. Obviously, Americans are not the only ones with a large stake in American economic policy. America's "war on drugs" has had, in my opinion, an enormously deleterious effect on a number of our Latin American neighbours. As a general matter, the effects of American policy are hardly confined within American borders. Non-citizens can't vote in American elections. The least we can do is permit them access to the public sphere so that they can attempt to inform and persuade American voters.