RoPFI
Regulation of Political Finance Indicator
William C R Horncastle
Publications
This page contains links to known publications that have used the RoPFI data. If you would like to add a publication to this list, please complete the form on the contact page.
2024: Introducing the RefCFRI: A Continuous Indicator Comparing Referendum Campaign Finance Regulation in 143 Countries
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Abstract
As referendums become an increasingly defining feature of global democratic practice, a normative debate centres around the importance of campaign finance regulations in ensuring fair and democratic procedures that avoid biasing their outcome. Understanding how different countries approach this issue can shed light on the impact of varied regulatory approaches, as well as whether they reach their intended policy goals. Scholarly work has therefore attempted to capture this cross-national variation in comparative measures, and this study attempts to build on these efforts by expanding their scope and depth to provide a global, inclusive and methodologically robust comparative measure of referendum political finance regimes. As such, it focuses on the design and compilation of the Referendum Campaign Finance Regulation Index (RefCFRI). We depart from a novel dataset detailing the presence/absence of 39 referendum campaign finance regulations in 143 countries as of April 2024. Using multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), we deliver empirical evidence for the existence of a singular dimension along which countries can be compared, namely the ‘level of regulation’. This dimension forms the RefCFRI, a continuous indicator that, together with our dataset, has the potential to contribute to political finance and referendum studies, as well as informed decision-making by policy-makers.
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Citation
Paulissen, T. and Horncastle, W.C.R. (2024) 'Introducing the RefCFRI: A Continuous Indicator Comparing Referendum Campaign Finance Regulation in 143 Countries', Politics, Online First. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/02633957241303708
2024: Money Rules: Parties, Oligarchs and Funding Regulation in Post-Soviet Countries
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Abstract
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the regulation of party finance in post-Soviet countries by leading academics and practitioners in the field. Through a series of cutting-edge chapters, using both original quantitative and qualitative data, it systematically sheds theoretical and empirical light on the way party funding regulation has evolved since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, as well as on the manner in which the legal regulation of party finances has had an impact (or not) on the evolution of party politics and democratic consolidation in the region. The book examines regulation in post-Soviet countries like Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia and Ukraine. In analysing the various dimensions of party funding regulation and their impact on political parties, party systems and democracy, it looks at the past and future, and makes recommendations on how legislation could be improved in order to further party development, party system stabilisation and democratic consolidation for all the countries in the region. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students, practitioners and journalists interested in political party finance and anti-corruption, and more broadly to political parties, democracy and democratic governance, and post-Soviet/Russian and East European politics.
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Citation
Casal Bértoa, F. and Tsutskiridze, L. (eds.) (2024) Money Rules: Parties, Oligarchs and Funding Regulation in Post-Soviet Countries. Routledge. Available at: https://www.routledge.com/Money-Rules-Parties-Oligarchs-and-Funding-Regulation-in-Post-Soviet-Countries/CasalBertoa-Tsutskiridze/p/book/9781032223421
2024: Direct democracy and party behaviour in the Republic of Ireland: A campaign finance perspective
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Abstract
Studies on the Irish referendum experience have generally accepted that political parties play a fundamental role in the direct democratic process. While this is rarely problematised, parties often campaign in referendums in order to steer them towards outcomes that are strategically beneficial. Contemporary research on Irish referendums has delved into how parties shape their campaigns to achieve these goals, but a more preliminary question is still to be addressed: to what extent do parties participate in referendum campaigns? This paper attempts to do so by examining campaign expenditure, which offers a concrete quantitative indicator for party engagement vis-à-vis referendums. Departing from theory on party behaviour and referendum instrumentalization, the article takes into account Irish regulations on campaign finance before offering a descriptive and explorative comparison of the expenditure of Irish political parties in recent referendum campaigns. Several patterns within the data are then discussed in light of potential influential factors identified in previous scholarly work. Results suggest that a referendum’s topic and its salience in the public sphere, as well as a party’s financial resources and government status, could explain party behaviour in Irish referendum campaigns, and a set of congruent hypotheses for future research are formulated in the conclusion.
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Citation
Paulissen, T. (2024) 'Direct democracy and party behaviour in the Republic of Ireland: A campaign finance perspective', Irish Political Studies, Online First. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2024.2371780
2024: State Aid to Political Parties: The Case of Türkiye
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Abstract
In addition to their establishment and organisation, political parties also need financial resources to sustain their activities. Parties fulfil this financing need from various revenue sources, and state aid is the most important of these sources. In the world, certain principles
and minimum thresholds are taken as basis in the distribution of state aid to political parties. However, each country makes various arrangements for state aid for different reasons. In Turkey, political parties have benefited from state aid since the 1971 amendment to the 1961 Constitution. The distribution criteria have always been debated. The 1982 Constitution did not put an end to these debates by regulating the distribution
criteria in the constitution. The effectiveness of state aid has been questioned due to the fact that political parties, which undertake the function of government, use their existing positions to make legal amendments for subjective purposes. With the transition to the presidential government system, it is necessary to review the current situation in the context of principles such as democracy, political competition and equality. In this context, it is necessary to establish a state aid system based on objective rules in accordance with a democratic regime by amending Article 68 of the Constitution. The main purpose of this study is to address the need to revise the currently problematic state aid system in Turkey.
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Citation
Kaymak, S. and Keskinsoy, O. (2024) 'State Aid to Political Parties: The Case of Türkiye', Inonu University Law Review, Volume 15, Issue 1. Available at: https://doi.org/10.21492/inuhfd.1431802.
2023: Competition, Scandal, or Ideology? A Congruence Analysis of Australian Political Finance Reforms (1980–2020)
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Abstract
Although studies into political finance reform have become commonplace, many questions remain unanswered in this area. Studies into links between scandals and political finance reform have provided conflicting findings, while little is known about why incumbents force through self-serving reforms in some instances, but cooperate with rivals in others. The ‘General Theory of Campaign Finance Reform’ reconciles inconsistencies by situating reform processes within the context of party competition. Observing that this framework has not yet been empirically tested, this study undertakes a Congruence Analysis to apply the model to a forty-year period of Australian political finance reform. Hansard is used to document inter-party interactions, in conjunction with quantitative indicators of party competition, organization, and ideology, which outline the changing contexts of reform. Findings indicate that party competition, scandals, and changes in incumbency are influential drivers of reform, while ideological factors play an inconsistent role. Providing insights into causal processes of reform, this article bridges the gap between theoretical and empirical literature on political finance.
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Citation
Horncastle, W C R. (2023) 'Competition, Scandal, or Ideology? A Congruence Analysis of Australian Political Finance Reforms (1980-2020)', Party Politics, Online First. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/13540688231202600
2023: Referendum campaign financing by political parties: the case of the United Kingdom
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Abstract
The literature on the political finance of referendum campaigns has focussed primarily on how these are regulated in individual countries, but scholarly work is yet to empirically explore how these regulations and other factors translate into concrete spending practices of political parties. This article attempts to do this for the United Kingdom (UK), which has one of the oldest and most extensive referendum political finance regimes, with the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (PPERA). After formulating several hypotheses grounded in party behaviour and political finance literature, we offer a close examination of the PPERA’s regulations on referendum campaign finance and compare the expenditure patterns of UK political parties in five post-PPERA referendums. The findings suggest that the competitiveness of a referendum, as well as a party’s financial resources and the salience of the referendum topic for the party are possible explanations for their financial engagement in the referendum campaign. More surprisingly, our results show that expenditure limits imposed by the PPERA barely have an effect on party expenditure. Parties rarely come close to the limits imposed, but when they do bump up against the limit, they are able to circumvent this via donations, which do not count towards their spending cap.
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Citation
Paulissen, T. and Maddens, B. (2023) 'Referendum campaign financing by political parties: the case of the United Kingdom', Political Science, Online First. https://doi.org/10.1080/00323187.2023.2238715
2022: Model based clustering of political finance regimes: Developing the regulation of political finance indicator (Open Access)
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Abstract
Political finance literature lacks a common framework for classifying regulatory systems. As these tools are influential in the identification of generalizable relationships, studies assessing political finance in areas such as corruption, competition, and electoral outcomes, often present case specific findings. Using updated International IDEA data, the application of a Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Model Based Clustering framework presents a variable to measure levels of regulation; the ‘Unregulated’, ‘Partially Regulated’ and ‘Strongly Regulated’ system types; and statistics for assessing the certainty of each country’s classification. Applying this methodology to a 180-country sample represents an improvement on previous studies which, due to data limitations, have often used reductive methods and limited sampling. In closing, the ‘Regulation of Political Finance Indicator’ is introduced via Multinomial Logistic Regression, where analyses from prior literature are revisited. Avenues for further study are provided, which may seek to identify generalizable relationships in the areas described above, while also looking to produce ongoing panel data.
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Citation
Horncastle, W C R. (2022) 'Model based clustering of political finance regimes: Developing the regulation of political finance indicator', Electoral Studies, Vol. 79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2022.102524