Did Citizens United Cause Democratic Backsliding?

Prior research has found that Citizens United—which legalized unlimited independent expenditures by corporations—has moved public policy in a more conservative pro-business direction. We argue that Citizens United may have had an even more fundamental effect on the institutions of American democracy itself. More specifically, we argue that Citizens United has on net favored the Republican Party electorally, and that the Republican Party has used this increased leverage to engage in democratic backsliding. Using a state-level difference-in-differences design we find that Citizens United (which forced 23 states to remove pre-existing limitations on independent expenditures but left the other 27 states untouched) induced a significant decline in the freeness and fairness of state elections. The effect is largely explained by Citizens United tipping several close elections in favor of Republicans just before the 2010 electoral redistricting cycle, which enabled significant Republican gerrymandering and voter suppression.