Topic Guide: Political Finance

Checkbook Elections; Political Finance in Comparative Perspective. Global Integrity, The Electoral Integrity Project, Sunlight Foundation, 2015.http://moneypoliticstransparency.org/static/img/MPT_WEB_FINAL_spreads.pdf

This is the executive summary for a comparative study that is set to be released in 2016. The study looks at political party funding in ten different country contexts, ranging from emerging economies to affluent economies, and including established democracies, new democracies and autocracies. The report highlights four core findings, including that legal regulations have limited effects; that the most common reforms seek to strengthen disclosure requirements and establish public finding regimes; that the effectiveness of legal reforms is related to the level of enforcement in a country; and that mixed policy strategies work best.  

Money, Politics and Transparency. Global Integrity, The Electoral Integrity Project, Sunlight Foundation, 2015. https://data.moneypoliticstransparency.org/

This is a research project completed in collaboration between the Sunlight Foundation, Global Integrity and the Electoral Integrity Project. It evaluates the key components of effective political finance regimes, including regulation of direct and indirect public funding, limits on contributions and expenditure, reporting and public disclosure, the regulation of third-party actors, and monitoring and enforcement. The study covers the political financing regime in 54 countries, and the results are published in specific country profiles. Overall, it concludes that mixed policy strategies work best to control money in politics.  

Fighting Corruption: Political Funding. Doublet, Y., 2012. GRECO. www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/...  

This report is based on an evaluation launched 2007 by the Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) in which it evaluated 39 of the 49 GRECO member states’ legislation on political financing. The report attempts to draw general lessons based on the evaluations and develops a set of good practices divided into three sections: transparency, monitoring and sanctions (enforcement). The report particularly aims at identifying weaknesses in the political finance systems of the assessed countries and provides constructive feedback for countries wishing to improve the fairness and competitiveness of their political finance regime. The report notes that the regulations examined usually fell short of the guiding principles outlined by the report.  

Regulating Political Party Financing: Some Insights from the Praxis. International IDEA, Netherland Institute for Multiparty Democracy, 2012. www.nimd.org/wp-content/upload...  

This report is a summary of the proceedings that took place at an IDEA/NIMD conference in 2012 entitled “The Legal Framework Governing Political Parties: the Case of Party Financing”. The report begins with a discussion of the meaning of political party financing, followed by a closer look at the state of affairs in six countries (Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda and Malawi) in the form of case studies. Highlights on the political party financing regimes in sub-Saharan Africa are also analysed with a focus on challenges and opportunities for reform. The report concludes by highlighting best practices, key lessons and a way forward in the form of recommendations. In relation to recommendations, the paper addresses recommended good practices related to the areas of regulatory frameworks, financing sources, modalities and criteria for public financing, and control and oversight.  

Party Regulation in Europe: A Comparative Overview. Piccio, C., 2012. www.academia.edu/5248598/Party...  

This paper describes the provisions referring to political parties in the national constitution, the party law and the party finance law in European countries. Particular attention is devoted to key issues such as party registration requirements, restrictions on party activity or identity, thresholds and allocation mechanisms for the public funding of political parties, regulation of private donations, as well as to the institution of authorities for the external oversight.  

Latin America Regulation on Political Parties: Continuing trends and working with the past. Molenaar, F., 2012. www.udesa.edu.ar/files/UAHuman...  

This paper looks at the development of the legal regulation of political parties in Latin America, with a focus on the content of the legal changes that have occurred over the last decade. Attention is paid in particular to the development of legal norms related to the registration and dissolution of parties, provisions for internal democracy and candidate selection and the regulation of private funding, public funding and access to the media.  

Political Corruption Assessment Research Toolkit. McDevitt, A. 2011. Transparency International GateWay. https://knowledgehub.transpare...

This topic guide contains information on the different existent political corruption assessments, which are defined as those tools aiming at identifying (i) misconduct in political finance and the use of state resources for political purposes, and/or (ii) weaknesses in the rules governing the legislature and political parties (and their applications in practice) which present corruption risks. The guide offers an overview of the different assessment approaches in areas of political finance and campaigning as well as the main challenges in conducting such assessments. Finally, the guide provides a list of promising approaches in the area.  

GRECO reports on transparency of party funding. 2007. www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/greco/evaluations/round3/ReportsRound3_en.asp  

The third round of evaluation initiated in 2007, analyses the compliance of the country-members of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) with the recommendations of the Council of Europe on common rules against corruption in the funding of political parties and elections campaigns. The reports analyse both the country’s legal framework and its implementation in practice.  

Global Integrity Report. www.globalintegrity.org/global...  

The Global Integrity Report provides quantitative data and qualitative reporting on the health of a country's anti-corruption framework. The scorecard assesses the existence, effectiveness, and the citizen access to key governance and anti-corruption mechanisms through more than 300 actionable indicators. It specifically examines issues related to political financing regulations and electoral integrity. Scorecards take into account both existing legal measures on the books and de facto realities of practical implementation in each country.  

CRINIS Project: Transparency in political party financing. Transparency International. http://gateway.transparency.or...  

This tool evaluates the levels of transparency built into current legislation and political financing practices of political parties and candidates during election campaigns, as well as the financial activities of parties in non-election years. The transparency of political finance activity is quantified using a set of 10 dimensions: internal book-keeping of parties, reporting to control agency, disclosure to the public, comprehensiveness, depth and reliability of reporting, preventative measures, sanctions, state control, public oversight. Various regional and country-specific reports using the CRINIS methodology are available on Transparency International's website.