… Our review of parties in campaigns and their adaptability in recent decades — such as to the ban on soft money and the rise of “outside” spending groups — casts doubt on any golden age of political parties in decades past and refutes widespread claims of their contemporary decline. We questioned the supposed link between party leaders’ control of campaign resources and their mastery of party discipline in Congress and state legislatures. …
We concluded that campaign finance reform was a weak tool for reducing partisan polarization, especially of the asymmetric variety that dominates our politics today. Giving more (or less) money to the formal parties would make little difference. Nor would significantly increasing the number of small donors diminish the tribalism between the parties. CONT.
Thomas Mann (Brookings) & Anthony Corrado (Colby College), The Monkey Cage