Polls indicate that a majority of Americans, across parties and ideological groups, feel that money has too much influence over politics and favor limiting money for campaigns and to support candidates. But how can America reform the system to reduce the power of wealth in the political sphere? This issue of The Reference Shelf looks at articles, political speeches, essays, and research on the issue of economic political reform, including campaign finance, lobbyists and corporate donations, and foreign spending.

This volume begins with a preface; a brief tracing the slow rise in numbers of Americans who don’t trust the government, the increasing power of political and corporate lobbyists that growing perception that American democratic power can be bought and sold to wealthy interests, and the worry of citizens over how much big corporations can influence politics, believing corporate and public interests often are in conflict with one another. Money in Politics includes articles, documents, and other literary works that fall into five topics:

1. The History of Political Money
2. The Politics of Corporate Money
3. The Power of the Dark Side
4. Unlimited Spending
5. The Spector of Corruption