News Release

January 31, 2001

No link between campaign spending, mistrust of government
Cato analysis of opinion data finds public not clamoring for campaign-finance reform

WASHINGTON—Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has reintroduced his campaign finance legislation, claiming broad public support to reform a system that breeds mistrust of government. But according to a new Cato Institute study, McCain is wrong on both counts: Campaign spending does not cause cynicism toward politics, and the American people care little about campaign finance reform.

"Yes, citizens' trust in government is low, and yes, campaign spending has been increasing at a rapid pace," says David M. Primo in "Public Opinion and Campaign Finance." "However, if we examine the relationship between trust in government and overall spending, no relationship exists."

For starters, the major drop in public trust occurred before the run-up in campaign spending, says Primo, a doctoral candidate in political science at Stanford University. That makes it hard to claim that increased spending caused mistrust toward government. What's more, during the period that campaign spending has been rising, public trust in government has fluctuated, contradicting reformers who allege that campaign spending and cynicism rise in tandem.

"Since the early 1980s, citizen mistrust of government has risen and fallen," Primo says. "So we cannot say, overall, that mistrust has increased over the past two decades. That indicates that rising campaign spending has not been associated with rising mistrust of government." In fact, by Primo's calculation, the correlation between campaign spending and trust it government is -.027-in statistical terms, close to zero.

Nor is the public clamoring for campaign-finance legislation, Primo says. "In poll after poll, campaign finance is near the bottom of the list of important issues alongside world peace and homelessness," he says, calling the public's response to the issue a "collective yawn." As a result, policymakers should be wary of carving out space on the legislative agenda for campaign finance reform. "The legislative priorities of the new administration should come before consideration of new campaign finance regulations," he says.

"Public Opinion and Campaign Finance: A Skeptical Look at Senator McCain's Claims"