Campaign Finance and American Democracy

Many believe that stricter campaign finance reform laws will improve the public's perception of the integrity of the election process and lessen their cynicism about politics. But will campaign finance reform change the public's attitudes towards our politics? The authors use a series of public opinion surveys and experiments to explore the extent to which reform of the campaign finance laws will accomplish reformers' goals at least in terms of changing public perception of politics. Contrary to the views of many experts, Primo and Milyo show that campaign finance reform, at least at the level typically enacted by Congress or state legislatures, and permitted by the Supreme Court, does little to increase the public's trust in government or lessen their cynicism about politics--