An Analysis on the History of Campaign Finance Reform Laws and the Impact of the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling on Campaign Financing

A look at the history of campaign finance laws and how they have evolved are necessary in order to understand why they were conceived and what has been the overall effect of their implementation. Without a fundamental understanding of campaign finance laws, it is difficult to understand the vast transformation of the U.S. election process in the past few decades. The existence of campaign finance laws also brings into question the possible effects of outsider influences, as even campaign finance pioneers were unsure of money’s political reach. Also, certain examples of campaign finance reform will be analyzed in order to note their effectiveness. The Citizens United case will be analyzed in order to understand what it was trying to achieve, and what it actually achieved, followed by an analysis of the consequences of the ruling.