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The role of political party finance reform in the transition from dominant to competitive party systems

Political parties play a key role in democratic processes. They are critical to ensuring participation in political life, the expression of the will of the people, and serve a wide range of functions. To fulfil these functions, political parties require financial resources. However, if the funding of political parties and elections is nor properly regulated, this can lead to a dominant party system, where the abuse of public resources by the incumbent ensures their re-election. The question of how to adequately fund democratic political systems and the role that money should play is a particularly vexed issue. It is widely recognised that regulatory provisions alone are insufficient. Further, there are limits to effectively regulating political party financing. This query sheds light on this issue by drawing on examples of transitions from a dominant party system to a multi-party system.

4 June 2019
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The role of political party finance reform in the transition from dominant to competitive party systems

Main points

  • Transparency in political party financing can play a key role in both reducing corruption and transitioning from a dominant party system to a multi-party system.
  • By itself, political party finance regulation is not enough to reduce corruption, undue influence in politics or ending dominant party systems. — Strong oversight and enforcement mechanisms are essential.
  • Civil society, the media and other local actors can be allies in garnering support for legislative change.

Cite this publication


Lee-Jones, K.; (2019) The role of political party finance reform in the transition from dominant to competitive party systems. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Helpdesk Answer 2019:4)

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Krista Lee-Jones

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All views in this text are the author(s)’, and may differ from the U4 partner agencies’ policies.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

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