Aspects of the debate in political party funding

Abstract

This thesis researches a subject which has become a bit more topical this time in Maltese politics. Political party funding has been long taught of but rarely discussed in Maltese parliament. The recent tabloids on reveled close friendships between contractors and political parties, have fueled issues on party funding transparency and the need for the state funding of political parties. After having analyzed the findings of the Gal des Commission Report 1995 on political party funding and researched the position on the subject of political parties today, the author humbly weaves a comprehensive approach to aspects of the debate in political party funding. This study presents the reader with EU policy guidelines resulting from long years of experience of party funding systems in other European countries. By presenting cases of how political parties use public resources through political patronage and incumbency, the author proves indeed that another form of state party funding in Malta already exists. Through the use of semi-structured interviews, the author identifies the main issues repelling both the Malta Labour Party and the Nationalist Party from coming together and agree on common grounds in enhancing democracy through greater transparency by implementing a system of state party funding. The author points out that due to limitations of both time and resources, the thesis will only include the opinion of the two main political parties i.e. the MLP and the PN. By referring to existing research data about public opinion of state party funding, the author analyzes the factors affecting the people's opinion on the subject. Since candidate election campaign spending is an important aspect of political transparency, the author has carried out exceptional research with Members of Parliament, in order to mitigate the current pitfalls of the existing legislation regulating candidate campaign spending. Because the author considers political parties as an integral part of democracy, it was in his interest to come up with valid policy proposals that perhaps can be inspiring for the regulation and implementation of state political party funding in Malta.