Most European countries have strict campaign finance limits. In the UK, no party can spend more than £19.5m on their national campaign, plus £10,000 to £16,000 for each candidate's local campaign. They're required to provide accounts and receipts for all of their campaign activities and can forfeit the election or face criminal charges if they overspend. That's chump change in American terms - the last presidential election cost about six billion dollars.

With strict campaign finance limits, lobbyists are far less influential. Candidates hardly think about fundraising, because any money raised over their spending limit is useless to them. A lobbyist might be persuasive, they might provide a lot of compelling evidence, they might make the case that a particular policy would be popular, but they can't offer a pseudo-bribe in the form of a massive campaign contribution.