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State Intervention in Party Politics: The Public Funding and Regulation of Political Parties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2008

Ingrid Van Biezen
Ingrid Van Biezen*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
*
E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article is concerned with a closer investigation of the growing tendency for the state to intervene in contemporary party politics. It examines two trends. First, it looks more closely at the increased levels of regulation of party activity and behaviour in European democracies, discussing the empirical practice as well as the underlying normative paradigms of party regulation. Second, it examines the increased availability of public funding to political parties from a comparative perspective, while also exploring the motivations for its introduction in light of particular understandings of party democracy. It is argued that both dimensions constitute part of the way in which parties have strengthened their linkages with the state in recent years, and that parties, as a result of the increased involvement of the state in their internal affairs and external behaviour, have become increasingly defined as public utilities or semi-state agencies.

Type
Articles
Information
European Review , Volume 16 , Issue 3: The State of the Parties– Party Democracy in the 21st Century , July 2008 , pp. 337 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2008

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