In the U.S., paper money as contrasted with coins, or hard money; also, unregulated monetary donations to political parties or candidates.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, advocates of soft money favoured governmental deficit spending to stimulate consumption and employment. Fiscal conservatives, who put their trust in hard money, maintained that government should not spend beyond its resources. In the late 20th century, strict regulations governed the source, amount, and use of donations to particular candidates (hard money), but few such laws applied to contributions for the general promotion of a political party's message (soft money). In 2002 the U.S. Congress passed legislation that prohibited soft money contributions to the national political parties and strictly limited such contributions to state and local parties.