The Madison paradox and the low cost of reducing special-interest legislation

While Madison concluded that there was no solution to the problem of special-interest group influence over politics, we argue that individuals motivated by altruism could contribute money in support of-general-interest legislation and offset the pernicious influence of interest groups. We estimate the effect that PAC contributions had on policy outcomes in the House of Representatives and then calculate how much it would cost for a civic-minded altruist to change the outcome. We conclude that buying policy outcomes in the House of Representatives is relatively cheap and that altruism may thus provide a method of improving government policy decisions.