Political Finance: State Control and Civil Society Monitoring

This paper was presented at the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Athens, Greece in November 2008. Under the premise that political finance is a necessary feature of political competition which must not cause damage to democracy, the paper addresses the risks stemming from money in politics and explores current methods to regulate these risks. It places an emphasis on state regulatory regimes and civil society organizations to monitor, evaluate and implement initiatives to combat the abuse of money.

Modern politics face the challenge of reconciling the presence of money in politics with the risks it poses to democratic values and good governance. This U4 Brief describes the nature of common risks and challenges, and looks at avenues for mitigating the corruption-related problems with political funding.