Public funding can limit the influence of interested money and thereby help curb corruption.If a country wants to have stable political parties and/or independent candidates, some argue that they also need to be prepared to help pay for them. Political parties and candidates need money for their electoral campaigns, to keep contacts with their constituencies, to prepare policy decisions and to pay professional staff. Public funding is a natural and necessary cost of democracy.Convincing enough as the arguments above might seem, there are also several good arguments for public funding. If all or a substantial amount of the party income comes directly from the State rather than from voluntary sources, political parties risk losing their independence and become organs of the State, thereby losing their ties to the civil society.Ī majority of the countries in the world give some form of public funds to political parties and/or candidates. Political parties risk becoming organs of the State rather than parts of civil society.This means that the political parties and candidates who will collect the money, also take the decision. The decision to allocate public funds to parties and candidates is most often taken in the national legislature (or in some cases in the Government). Political parties and candidates both take the decision and collect the money.To many people, using public funds to give to political parties and candidates would be far down their list of priorities. Public resources are scarce and needed for everything from schools and hospitals to roads and salaries for staff. When introduced, public funding is often unpopular among the public.
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