ABSTRACT
This chapter explores remedies for the disproportionate and corrupting influence of money in politics. A tiny fraction of the electorate provides most of the money contributed in election campaigns. Contributors’ unusual propensity to contribute reflects a highly unequal distribution of wealth. Workers in that district without health insurance might benefit from reallocating funds from inefficient wheat subsidies over to universal health insurance. To the extent inelastic constituency waste is greater than contributor waste, to that extent campaign finance reform would fail to bring about the reallocation of wasted funds to national priorities. Many experts believe corrupt politics is inevitable and reform efforts will fail. Using public matching funds to balance privately funded attack ads has a rival: expenditure limits. Both the matching funds approach and the expenditure limits approach aim to reduce the advantage of wealthy interests in election campaigns. If public broadcasting were expanded, it could leverage the democratic effects of publicly financing campaigns.
