Life After Reform

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (formerly known as McCain-Feingold) is the most important federal campaign finance law in decades. Whether the law will achieve its intended purposes, what it will mean for the parties and interest groups, and how it will affect elections--all are hotly contested issues in news columns and courtroom depositions. This book is the first serious and dispassionate attempt to think about the effect of this law since it was passed. It presents the research and early conclusions of political scientists who were brought together by the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute to think about how the new law is--and is not--likely to change politics. The authors do not share a common political outlook, or even a common perspective about campaign finance reform. What they do share are reputations for being among the country's best scholars of money and politics. This is a book that students and practitioners of politics will not want to miss, especially in view of the recent Supreme Court decision.