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International Political Party Assistance: An Overview and Analysis

Author: K Kumar
Date: 2004
Size: 37 pages

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Summary

Why should donors assist political parties in post-conflict and transition countries? What are the problems with political party assistance programmes? This report for the Conflict Research programme in the Netherlands Institute of International Relations highlights critical issues in this relatively new field.

Political party assistance programmes are based on the premise that political parties are essential for the emergence and consolidation of democracies. They seek to reform and strengthen political parties in transition and post-conflict societies by improving organisational and political capacities or through regulatory/legal reform. Programmes comprise various combinations of financial/commodity assistance, technical assistance, training for political leaders and party functionaries, research, workshops, seminars, visits and foreign tours.

The concepts, strategies, techniques, and prescriptions of donor programmes are derived from political parties in the West. These are often not appropriate to the socio-economic and cultural traditions of most developing and transition countries. International assistance needs to be more relevant to local needs.

Political party assistance faces further problematic issues and dilemmas:

• A sense of ownership of programmes is weak in many countries.
• Technical expertise is still lacking, and programmes are too reliant on international experts.
• Programmes suffer from short-term horizons. This can hamper the consolidation of genuine multiparty democracy because party-building is a lengthy process.
• Resource allocation is inadequate, and is usually focussed on election campaigns rather than organisational capacity building. Successful programmes (Serbia, East Timor) have been well funded the over long term.
• International assistance tends to be opportunistic and coherent comprehensive strategies are lacking.
• Partisan assistance can promote peace and democracy (Serbia, Nicuragua, Cambodia), but blurs the distinction between help and political manipulation.

Donors need to address the imbalance between assistance for political parties and for civil society. Civil society is important but cannot form government, enact laws, or form a loyal opposition. Democracy requires both strong civil society and well-organised, mass-based political parties. Funding for political party assistance should be adequate for the mid and long term. In addition:

• Party leaders must identify needs, not the international community.
• Planning must take into account local conditions before identifying an exact approach. They should not be "off the shelf" replications of American/ European practice.
• International agreement on beneficiary selection criteria is needed.
• Partisan assistance should only be considered in exceptional circumstances.
• More research is needed in this field. There is a lack of systematic data.

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Source: Kumar, K., 2004, 'International Political Party Assistance: An Overview and Analysis', Conflict Research Programme Working Paper 33, Clingendael Institute, Netherlands
Author: Netherlands Institute of International Relations 'Clingendael', http://www.clingendael.nl