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[Global Corruption Report 2001] Corruption in party financing
Ewing, Keith
Ewing, Keith
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Preventing corruption in the funding of political parties is crucial to the quality of democracy. Crude electoral bribery and political malpractice, the ‘capture’ of the political process, whether by commercial or criminal interests, and the absence of independent institutions all mar the democratic process. A particular concern in contemporary politics is the rising costs of elections and campaigns, a factor that is now partly responsible for corruption in party financing. A related concern is the large donations that are given to finance campaigns, sometimes in brazen disregard of the law. Although the rules and traditions governing party politics vary the world over, basic patterns of illegal party funding and campaigning clearly emerge. These include setting up ‘front’ organisations, through which funds can be channelled in excess of legal limitations,2 or smuggling hidden ‘slush’ funds into party coffers. In some instances, funding operates through legal loopholes, and is thus not hidden or in any way criminal, as is the case with ‘soft money’ in US political campaign financing. But there are critics of the latter nonetheless. Transparency laws related to party funding were fatally evaded across the globe during 2000–01. In Germany, Chancellor Kohl was forced to resign as honorary chairman of the Christian Democrat Union (CDU) following revelations of illegal donations to his party during his chancellorship. In Southeast Asia, the rising costs of elections were cited as being partly responsible for the different forms of corruption that were exposed in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. In Ecuador, large, illicit donations were discovered to have been made to the campaign of the former president, leading to the arrest of a prominent banker.3 Even countries that claim to have tough regulatory bodies and independent courts do not escape censure – as Germany’s recent history testifies. Paradoxically the ‘independence’ or ‘relative autonomy’ of courts can present another set of problems for those wishing to clean up politics. Many party funding problems in 186 Global Corruption Report 2001 Introduction
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2001
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393571100X
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