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Funding Political Parties in Emerging African Democracies: What Role for Norway?

Author: H Mathisen and L Svasand
Date: 2002
Size: 30 pages (60 KB)

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Summary

Norway has been reluctant so far to support political parties directly as part of its democracy assistance strategy. If this is going to change, what models of foreign party funding are available for the future Norwegian Support Programme? This paper from the Chr. Michelsen Institute identifies some problems in the development of political parties in Africa and indicates how funding may contribute to resolving these problems. The paper presents some models of foreign political funding and discusses the pros and cons of such funding: The German, American, British, Dutch, and Swedish models are assessed. It also reviews the status of the Norwegian parties’ involvement in party supporting activities in new democracies, and addresses some problems which should be avoided if Norwegian funding for parties is introduced. Political funding is understood as the way that political parties and individuals running for political office raise funds for election campaigns and for maintaining themselves as organisations.

Political financing is under-regulated in Africa and it is very difficult to determine how much public money and other forms of revenue African parties have at their disposal. When external funding is provided, it is mainly given for capacity building within the parties and for supporting civil society. Other findings of the paper are that:

The political parties in African States are generally characterised by a dominant party system, a fragmented party system, and weak parties
Many support programmes are related to the parliamentary strength of the parties in the donor country, and not in the recipient countries
While political parties should develop out of national resources alone, the level of economic development in African states does not create a surplus sufficient to build mass parties from foundations in civil society
Providing knowledge and information from political systems which are organised differently from the big Western powers increases the range of possible models that can be adapted to fit national circumstances
One argument for the legitimacy of foreign funding is to limit the national funding agency’s (government) influence over the funding scheme.

As new democracies move from a transitional phase to a consolidation phase, there is a need to build institutions that can support not only pro-poor policies but also check for executive dominance and abuse of state authority. This necessitates the building of functioning parties and vibrant party systems. Other suggestions of the paper are that:

If democracy is to become entrenched in Africa, it needs to be strengthened from within
A public policy that includes funding of political parties must avoid imposing a particular set of parties from abroad, or a particular organisational model, or excessive fragmentation of the party system
As the opportunity to select appropriate models depends on available information and knowledge of how various democratic institutions function, small countries should be involved in supporting political parties
Direct financial subsidies to receiving parties should be avoided, and caution should be taken when countries come close to election times
Support for parties could be channelled through an inter-party unit in the recipient countries
Parties eligible for funding in each country should be selected on a combination of criteria, such as commitment to democratic government, including abstention from using violence.

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Source: Mathisen, H. and Svåsand, L. 2002, 'Funding Political Parties in Emerging African Democracies: What Role for Norway?' Chr. Michelsen Institute Report R 2002:6, Bergen.
Author: Lars Svasand , lars.svasand@isp.uib.no ; Santosh Bisht , s-bisht@dfid.gov.uk
Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), http://www.cmi.no
Organisation: Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), http://www.cmi.no