Constituent pressure may be more effective than lobbying in determining whether a bill passes or fails.

What has a greater effect on legislative outcomes, campaign donations and lobbying efforts (the inside game) or constituent activism (the outside game)? In new research, Jeff Smith – who once served in the Missouri Senate, representing 175,000 St. Louisans – analyzes the impact of each method. He finds that contributions had no statistically significant impact on policy outcomes; other than nourishing a class of political fixers, corporate political spending accomplished little. However, constituent contacts seem to have had a substantial impact.