Political Finance Regulations Around the World: An Overview of the International IDEA Database
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) database on political finance regulation was originally created in 2003 and has since become the leading source of information on political finance regula tion worldwide. During 2011, International IDEA decided to revise and update the database and to extend its coverage to additional areas, such as candidate finance, gender issues and abuse of state resources. The database on political finance regulations now provides up-to-date information on regulations used in 180 countries around the world.
This report is intended as an introduction to the database and to compare political finance regulations in different parts of the world. The analysis is divided into two chapters. The first chapter, ‘Global and Regional Analysis’, takes a global view of the regulations covered in the database as well as the situation in the different regions of the world. A series of world maps are included to show the spread of various regulations. The second chapter, ‘Political Finance Regulations and Other Variables’, introduces some variables that are not included in the database itself, and which are not directly related to political finance, to see if correlations can be found between factors such as the level of political freedom and the existence of different types of regulations.
As this paper is intended as a presentation of the data, this report does not draw extensive conclusions from the findings, nor seek indepth explanations or implications of the information in the database. Instead, we hope that others will take up this task, whether they are interested in regulations globally or in a particular region or country. We look forward to seeing how the data is used in the future to explore and illustrate the many complicated issues relating to the role of money in politics.
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) database on political finance regulation was originally created in 2003 and has since become the leading source of information on political finance regula tion worldwide. During 2011, International IDEA decided to revise and update the database and to extend its coverage to additional areas, such as candidate finance, gender issues and abuse of state resources. The database on political finance regulations now provides up-to-date information on regulations used in 180 countries around the world.
This report is intended as an introduction to the database and to compare political finance regulations in different parts of the world. The analysis is divided into two chapters. The first chapter, ‘Global and Regional Analysis’, takes a global view of the regulations covered in the database as well as the situation in the different regions of the world. A series of world maps are included to show the spread of various regulations. The second chapter, ‘Political Finance Regulations and Other Variables’, introduces some variables that are not included in the database itself, and which are not directly related to political finance, to see if correlations can be found between factors such as the level of political freedom and the existence of different types of regulations.
As this paper is intended as a presentation of the data, this report does not draw extensive conclusions from the findings, nor seek indepth explanations or implications of the information in the database. Instead, we hope that others will take up this task, whether they are interested in regulations globally or in a particular region or country. We look forward to seeing how the data is used in the future to explore and illustrate the many complicated issues relating to the role of money in politics.
