substantive matters/issues• As at Dalat in April, the Fontainebleau conferencefailed entirely on substantive issues.• Reporters are often reluctant to examine substantive issues.• Some view unconstrained election spending as positive, exposingvoters to more debate about substantive issues.• Candidates also are resorting to personal attacks to get attention because their positions on most substantive issues are remarkably similar.• Disenfranchisement in the first sense relates to the virtualexclusion of certainsubstantive issues from the ordinary political agenda.