D emo c r a c y a n d t h e r u l e o f l aw Some countries offer more funding to parties fielding female candidates The IDEA handbook Commonwealth Governance Handbook 2014/15 14 culture – in particular how its people view politics and the role of political parties – should shape its political finance regulatory framework and how it addresses its challenges. Laws matter, but accomplish little on their own. The legal framework is the starting point for the role that money ought to have in political life. However, formal rules alone cannot have a significant impact. Far too often, rules are circumvented or even used as a tool for political oppression. Factors, such as a reasonably democratic environment with overall respect for the rule of law, greatly affect the possibility of controlling finance – more so than the legal provisions themselves. Enforcement is the weakest link. Although there is a lot of knowledge today about the various problems related to money in politics, and a large majority of countries have legal frameworks in place, the system of ensuring compliance is often weak. The starting point for improvement should be a thorough analysis of the specific needs per agency – identifying whether there is a lack of political will expressed as a lack of force and mandate for the agency, a lack of technical know-how or a lack of independence from the parties and candidates they are supposed to monitor. The gender funding gap needs to be addressed. Women face more obstacles to raising or accessing funds than men. Given that there are many reasons for these structural obstacles, any solution should be multifaceted. Political finance legislation needs to address these inequalities, and public funding can provide incentives and support for female candidates. Political parties have a key role to play in addressing this gender funding gap; in addition to adhering to political finance regulations they can (and should) show initiative by introducing voluntary internal reforms to promote women’s participation and raise funds on their behalf. Peer networks are an effective way to encourage reform. There is a general dearth of regional initiatives through which countries develop joint standards for political finance and monitor overall compliance.11 Establishing such regional initiatives would help countries identify weaknesses in national political finance policies and pressure each other to undergo necessary legislative and institutional reforms. Creating regional peer networks would hopefully have a positive effect on the quality as well as the enforcement of the laws. Broader involvement in the development of political finance regulations is needed. Politicians themselves design the rules they are supposed to obey. Thus regulation continues to include loopholes, enforcement agencies are not suciently empowered and parties do not adequately account for their finances. One way to ensure that political finance regulations do not exclusively serve the short-term interests of politicians is to involve a wide range of stakeholders in their development. In doing so, care should be taken to avoid regulatory frameworks that are so restrictive that they weaken the vitality and dynamism of party politics. Party and candidate finance information needs to be clear and accessible. As the result of the media uncovering political finance scandals, including corruption and bribes, laws and regulations have been instigated or revised over and over again. In spite of this, there is surprisingly little systematic documentation about the income and expenditures, very few monitoring agencies can provide comprehensive records, few civil society organisations have a well-developed monitoring methodology and perhaps even fewer political parties have thorough bookkeeping available to the public. Until very basic information about party and candidate finances is provided in a systematic and easily accessible way, true transparency regarding money in politics will be dicult to achieve. The huge amounts of money involved in some election campaigns make it impossible for those without access to large private funds to compete on the same level as those who are well funded. There is no doubt that political parties need access to funds in order to play their part in the political process. At the same time, the role of money in politics is arguably the biggest threat to democracy worldwide today. This threat is clear across all continents – from huge corporate campaign donations in the United States and drug money seeping into politics in Latin America, to corruption scandals throughout Asia and Europe. Women candidates in particular suffer disproportionately from lack of access to campaign finance. In many countries, unfair allocation of public funds distorts the playing field in favour of ruling parties. Attempts to tackle these challenges through political finance laws and regulations are often undermined by a lack of political will or capacity, as well as poorly designed and enforced measures. Recognizing the many challenges of money in politics and the gap in comparative knowledge, International IDEA has been focusing on the topic for over a decade. The 2014 handbook builds on the 2003 International IDEA handbook, Funding of Political Parties and Election Campaigns, and is unique in its global scope. An important basis for this work has been International IDEA’s Database on Political Finance, which received a major revision and update in 2012. Yves Leterme Secretary General, International IDEA Funding of Political Parties and Election Campaigns: A Handbook on Political Finance is an overview of political finance in law and in practice, with chapters on different global regions. Tom Baird
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