How Does Money Corrupt Politics

Across America it is a widely held belief that money has corrupted politics. Study after study shows that the majority of Americans believe our politicians are corrupted by immense amount of money flowing in from Political Action Committees (PACs), Interest Groups, organizations and personal contributions. American’s agree that campaign finance and lobbyist regulation needs to take place, however few think that regulation will help. Perhaps this is why people barely pay attention to campaign finance. Essentially money has become a part of our political system and there is little hope that we could extricate ourselves from it.
American’s negative opinion about the trustworthiness of politicians perhaps comes from the mass media. The media report on matters that create the most controversy, controversy equals drama and thus drama garners viewers. The media frame politicians as owing favors to contributors, the amount of effort a legislators places on a piece of legislation or idea is equal to the size of the contribution.
But is that flow of money a reliable measure of power that the contributor holds? Some groups claim it is not. In a study by

The majority of American’s believe this theory. However, in her study Constituents vs. Fat Cats, she determined that the opposite is true. Legislators concerned with their electoral position “will always err on the side of the constituent” (Chin, p.753). She argues that legislators do not agree to access based on what the highest contributor is advocating. Indeed Chin states that access is granted based on the seekers’ constituency versus their PAC status (p.753). Additionally legislators consider other factors when considering requests for access such as expertise, personal credibility and constituent access (p. 756). Chin concludes that legislators do not grant access to high dollar contributors at the expense of their