Campaign Finance Laws and Political Efficacy: Evidence from the States

The decline of political ecacy and trust in the United States is often linked to the rise of money in politics. Both the courts and reform advocates justify restrictions on campaign donations and spending as necessary for the improve- ment of links between the government and the governed. We conduct the first test of whether campaign finance laws actually influence how citizens view their government by exploiting the variation in campaign finance regulations both across and within states during the last half of the 20th century. Our analysis reveals no large positive eects of campaign finance laws on political ecacy. Public disclosure laws and limits on contributions from organizations are in some cases associated with modest increases in ecacy, but public financing is associated with a similarly modest decrease in ecacy.