For those looking into the American system of political party financing from the outside, the combination of labyrinthine rules and amorphous constitutional constructs appears unique and bewildering.  The complexity of the rules and impenetrability of the guiding concepts, however, grow from the peculiar place of political parties and political money in the American constitutional design.  Indeed, the “problem” of party financing can serve as a lens through which to view the distinctness of America’s regime of political regulation.  This chapter attempts to analyze this problem in a way that highlights the unique features both of the constitutional law of American party finance and of the relevant parts of the political system that produce it.