Money in Politics
Money can have a negative influence on politics and present a challenge to foreign aid. Find out how to reduce political funding’s adverse impact on developing countries.
Money is vital for modern democracies. Without it, citizens would not have the means to convey ideas nor compete for political power through electoral processes. However, money can distort the democratic ideals of fair competition through unbalanced access to resources to some individuals or political groups, upsetting one of the cornerstones of democracy – the concept of ‘one person one vote’.
Explore this Theme Page to, among other things:
- Understand how incumbent governments may abuse state resources to remain in power
- Watch a video explaining the basics of money negative influence on politics (in Spanish) - see below
- Learn about Zambia’s experience trying to deal with grand corruption
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Milking the system?
Abuse of state resources for re-election damages democracy creating an unlevel playing field that improves re-election chances of incumbents and negatively influencing the quality of government. Efforts to confront the problem require attention not only to politicians but also to the public administration system that supplies such resources. Most efforts however try to deal only with politicians who abuse government resources. This paper explains the need to include not only reforming the electoral system but also working to reduce the vulnerability of the public sector to political abuse during elections should work.
Publications
Milking the system": Fighting the abuse of public resources for re-election"
Making hay while the sun shines: Experiences with the Zambian Task Force on corruption
Investigate without peril: How to support investigative journalism in East Africa?
Regulating conflicts of interest in challenging environments: The case of Azerbaijan
Latest Expert Answers
Evidence of illegal cross-border flows in South Asia and their impact on corruption
Videos
Financiamiento Politico y Corrupcion
This animation, produced by Transparency International in 2010 in Spanish, presents a summary of the main risks associated with the financing of political parties and political campaigns, besides making four recommendations on how citizens can contribute to reduce the negative influence money may have in such political processes.
Recommended Reading
Looking beyond the incumbent: The effects of exposing corruption on electoral outcomes
To assess whether information about corruption would affect voter behaviour, the authors conducted a field experiment alongside the process of the 2009 local elections in Mexico. Their study consisted of a randomly assigned corruption awareness campaign one week before election day. The campaign distributed flyers with information about resources spent by the municipality in a corrupt manner (the information was taken from reports by the Federal Auditor's Office). Assessing the impact in terms of voter turn out after the election, the authors conclude that information about corruption demobilized voters and weakened partisan identification with the corrupt incumbent's party.
Preventing corruption: a toolkit for parliamentarians
Developed by the Secretariat for the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC) and UNDP, this toolkit aims to facilitate a more active parliamentary involvement in the implementation, oversight and monitoring of UNCAC; highlight the role of parliamentarians in preventing corruption and track parliamentary performance as well as emerging trends and developments; identify gaps where parliamentary strengthening may be needed; and, bolster inter-institutional dialogue on anti-corruption reforms.
Glossary
Accountability
Active and passive bribery
Bribery
Bureacratic corruption (see petty corruption)
Clientelism (see patronage)
Cronyism (see clientelism and patronage)
Favouritism
Grand corruption
Integrity
Kleptocracy
Nepotism (see favouritism)
Patronage (see clientelism)
Petty corruption (see bureacratic corruption)
Political corruption
Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs)
State capture
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