Listening to science is paramount in policy making, argues , the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Professor and a professor of and business administration at the 蘑菇传媒 in an op-ed for , which coincides with Congress鈥檚 taking up , the For the People Act of 2021.
The bill contains elements of campaign finance reform, including stricter disclosure requirements, and a call for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court鈥檚 Citizens United decision. Yet, the proposed legislation is 鈥渞iddled with claims that do not hold up when subjected to scientific scrutiny,鈥� argues Primo.
Together with , a professor of economics and chair of the economics department at the University of Missouri, with whom Primo cowrote a recent book, (University of Chicago Press, 2020), the researchers take issue with the underlying premises that the legislation would 鈥渇ortify our democracy鈥� against the 鈥渢orrent of money flowing into our political system,鈥� thereby protecting 鈥渢he integrity of democracy.鈥�
Instead they point to their own examination of data on attitudes toward money in politics. Their 2020 study showed, they write in the op-ed, 鈥渇orty years of experimentation with campaign finance reform and virtually no evidence that it actually improves how Americans view their democracy. And decades of social science research on democracy suggests there is no reason to believe that campaign finance reforms, which are themselves the products of a democratic process, are going to improve that process in meaningful ways,鈥� Milyo and Primo write.
The author or coauthor of several books, including (University of Chicago Press, 2007), Primo is an expert on campaign finance and the federal debt. His research focuses on budget rules, corporate social responsibility, corporate political spending, and the effectiveness of campaign finance laws.
