Clearly, business retains its historically dominant position among interests. There is a significant imbalance of resources between corporate interests and other interests such as poor people, environmentalists, and consumer advocates. Labor can sometimes match the political muscle of business, but often not. However, an equal or greater imbalance has existed since the end of the colonial era, and business is today forced to deal with more, and stronger, opposing interests than in the past.

The rise of soft money and refinements in lobbying methods create a perception that corporate money is undermining the independence of officials. However, specific evidence of deep corruption, as opposed to periodic and healthy exposures of lawbreaking, is not forthcoming. In part because of disclosure rules, American politics is cleaner than the politics of most other nations and cleaner than in past eras.

The challenge for American society is to balance the First Amendment right of corporations to free political expression against the societal interest of maintaining corruption-free elections and government decisions. So far, our society has successfully maintained a rough, if not perfect, balance.