Funding Of Political Parties Flashcards
What is the current state of regulation?
-campaign finance tightly regulated by two key pieces of legislation - unlike in US
What is the political parties, elections + referendums act 2000
-all parties register with election commission + must provide regular returns of their income + expenditure
-strict limits around each party spends - £30,000 per constituency
-parties must declare all donations
-it regulates campaign expenditure for national referendums + issue fines if break rules e.g. 2018 leave EU fined £70,000 for breaches electoral law
What was the political parties + elections act 2009
-strong themed provisions of PPCRA increased powers of electoral commission
-placed further requirements to clarify donation sources
-major donations or loans can only come from uk residents
What do laws for party funding regulate?
-laws regulate some funding that occurs but don’t resolve issues of how parties should be funded
-several measures for doing this — membership subscriptions, individual donors + state funding
What are membership subscriptions?
-fairest + most transparent method of funding
-large members paying small amounts ensures no single donor gets undue influence
-problem — party membership not large enough sustain level of finance required to fund national campaigns, post ads on billboards + social media
What are individual donors?
-Blair — lab benefited from wealthy individuals incl. Bernie Ecclestonw chief executive of formula one
-cons benefited from generous donors - party raiding the over £5m in donations first week 2019 campaign incl. £200,000 from Chernukin wife of Russian businessman
-Brexit party — small parties receive large donations e.g. businessman Christopher Harborne donated £2m to their 2019 campaign
What re the problems with individual donors?
-potential for corruption + undue political influence e.g. 1997 Ecclestone’s donation to lab led some suggest it was ‘rapid’ by delay in introduction of ban on tobacco advertising in formula 1
What is state funding?
-parties receive public funds through policy development grants
-are available to parties with at least 2 sitting members of HOC
-also receive short (commons) + Cranborne (lords) money - paid to opposition to parties help with administration work to provide effective govt scrutiny
Should the state fund political parties? (Yes)
-state money is ‘clean’ without dependence on wealthy donors + interest groups who may expect something in return
-enable politicians focus representing constituents + developing policies benefit entire nation + not just cosying up to potential donors
-state funding make it easier limit overall spend on elections most of which goes on ads + could be reined in
-would encourage campaign in all seats to increase party vote + not just in key marginals - in turn help democracy
Should the state fund political parties? (No)
-voters not fund parties with which they disagree with + are many better areas to spend tax payers money such as health + education
-parties could become isolated from real world if links + donations with interest groups were cut
-state funds make parties dependant on state + less incentivised to actively recruit members + could also be manipulate pd by governing party for own benefit
-funding based on existing share of vote strengthens larger parties + more difficult smaller ones bet off grounds - smaller disadvantaged by FPTP 2015 UKIP polled 12.4% but only gained 1 MP
