Confronting the Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century
Second World Assembly
November 12-15, 2000
São Paulo, Brazil
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Fernando Henrique Cardoso
President of Brazil
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Corruption in Party Financing and Election Campaigns: What Can Civil Society Do Against it?
Organizers:
Ethos Institute (Brazil)
Transparency International
Rapporteur:
Paul Flather (U.K.)
Europaeum
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Moderators:
Miklos Marschall (Hungary)
Transparency International
Michael Pinto-Duschinsky (U.K.)
Brunel University
Presenters:
Tunku Abdul Aziz (Malaysia)
Transparency International Malaysia
Christian Gruenberg (Argentina)
Poder Ciudadano
Kumbirayi Hodzi (Zimbabwe)
Transparency International Zimbabwe
Marcin Walecki (Poland)
National Democratic Institute/Transparency International
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The key question taken up by participants in this workshop was: How can civil society, and NGOs in particular, combat corruption in the financing of political parties in democratic systems? Following presentations on Argentina, Central Europe, Zimbabwe, and Thailand, the participants discussed the issues at the heart of creating good laws and how best to enforce them-which is not always appropriate in single-party dominant states, since they are open to abuse against opposition parties-instilling value commitments, publicizing data, and creating disincentives to help keep parties and companies from engaging in corrupt practices.
Recommendations:
- Set up a network of participants on this topic and devote a section of the World Movement Web site to . . .
- serve as an information source by linking members and giving them a space to post their ideas and information about their experiences in this area of work;
- provide a monthly bulletin, to be produced by Transparency International, and research reports and information circulated by the Corruption Working Group of the International Political Science Association;
- allow subgroups to develop, for instance, scholars engaged in research and data collection in the field or activists helping each other with their work, drawing on other support mechanisms and resources.
- Develop the tools needed by activists to fight party corruption, including:
- a database of "best practices" on the development of party and finance laws and enforcement;
- information drawn from the source books of Transparency International; and
- information on successful experiments and experiences in monitoring party financing and the behavior of party officials and parliamentarians.
- Campaign for, or at least consider supporting, the following general international reforms:
- provide appropriate forms of public funding of parties in those countries where this does not already exist;
- offer free access to the media, particularly to TV (a necessity today for high quality democratic functioning), in countries where this is not already done;
- support an international convention condemning corruption in party financing, in particular the current campaign of Transparency International to extend the OECD convention against corruption to include specific measures outlawing contributions to party officers and officials.
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