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TI policy position
Transparency International
Transparency International
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"Political finance regulations have been introduced in a majority of democracies to promote fair political competition and to 'clean up' politics, specifically to limit the influence of business over the political sphere. But all too often political party and campaign finance laws are breached with impunity, in the face of enforcement agencies that are constrained by cumbersome legislation, a lack of independence, insufficient resources or a lack of will. This situation needs remedying because people's trust in democracy is eroded when democratically elected leaders fail to comply with laws they themselves design. The stakes are high, both in terms of impact on the democratic system and of the abundant spoils of political power that are traded in corrupt transactions. Yet even when there appears to be political will to sanction infractions of political finance laws, these laws are difficult to enforce. In the well-documented Elf case, for example, committed prosecutors were unable to produce evidence of the allegation that French political parties had received millions of dollars from oil company Elf in the late 1980s; misuse of private property by company executives was easier to demonstrate.
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Preprint
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2005
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With permission of the license/copyright holder