government corruption: lobbies and campaign finance reform

The Becker-Posner Blog:

"Another way to make my point that there is excessive attention in the US to lobbying and campaign spending is to compare political outcomes here with those in Europe or Japan. All the data indicate that much more is spent on campaigning and lobbying in the US than in either of these other places. Yet it is not obvious that either Europe or Japan has better political outcomes, measured either by the quality of legislation, or by the response to public opinion. Indeed, I believe their outcomes are worse, or at least no better."

Here is an interesing set of essays basically saying that the whole campaign finance reform hubbub is a tempest in a teapot. I'm not sure I'm totally convinced, but they make a good case. Certainly, having lived many years overseas in France and the Middle-East, our government is much less corrupt than it could be.