Editing Political party (section)

==Funding==
{{Main|Political party funding}}
Many of the activities of political parties involve the acquisition and allocation of funds in order to achieve political goals. The funding involved can be very substantial, with contemporary elections in the largest democracies typically costing billions or even tens of billions of dollars.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-11/why-india-s-election-is-among-the-world-s-most-expensive |title=Why India's Election Is Among the World's Most Expensive |work=Bloomberg News |author1=Archana Chaudhary |author2=Jeanette Rodrigues |date=11 March 2019 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=31 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210131081640/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-11/why-india-s-election-is-among-the-world-s-most-expensive |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/10/cost-of-2020-election-14billion-update/ |title=2020 election to cost $14 billion, blowing away spending records |publisher=[[OpenSecrets]] |date=28 October 2020 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=22 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122022953/https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/10/cost-of-2020-election-14billion-update |url-status=live }}</ref> Much of this expense is paid by candidates and political parties, which often develop sophisticated fundraising organizations.<ref name=fisher04>{{cite journal |author1=Justin Fisher |author2=Todd A. Eisenstadt |title=Introduction: Comparative Party Finance: What is to be Done? |journal=Party Politics |volume=10 |issue=6 |pages=619–626 |date=1 November 2004 |doi=10.1177/1354068804046910|s2cid=144721738 |url=http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/3539 }}</ref> Because paying for participation in electoral contests is such a central democratic activity, the funding of political parties is an important feature of a country's politics.<ref name=fisher04/>

===Sources of party funds===
[[File:The Bosses of the Senate by Joseph Keppler.jpg|thumb|upright=1|left|Campaign finance restrictions may be motivated by the perception that excessive or secretive contributions to political parties will make them beholden to people other than the voters.]]
Common sources of party funding across countries include dues-paying party members, advocacy groups and lobbying organizations, corporations, trade unions, and candidates who may self-fund activities.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Brad |last=Alexander |title=Good Money and Bad Money: Do Funding Sources Affect Electoral Outcomes? |journal=Political Research Quarterly |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=353–358 |date=June 2005 |doi=10.2307/3595635|jstor=3595635 }}</ref> In most countries, the government also provides some level of funding for political parties.<ref name=fisher04/><ref name=levush16>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/law/help/campaign-finance-regulation/comparative.php |title=Regulation of Campaign Finance and Free Advertising |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |date=March 2016 |first=Ruth |last=Levush |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=27 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227220849/https://www.loc.gov/law/help/campaign-finance-regulation/comparative.php |url-status=live }}</ref> Nearly all of the 180 countries examined by the [[International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance]] have some form of public funding for political parties, and about a third have regular payments of government funds that goes beyond campaign reimbursements.<ref name=idea>{{cite web |url=https://www.idea.int/data-tools/question-view/548 |title=Are there provisions for direct public funding to political parties? |publisher=[[International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance]] |access-date=23 January 2021 |archive-date=25 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125161140/https://www.idea.int/data-tools/question-view/548 |url-status=live }}</ref> In some countries, public funding for parties depends on the size of that party: for example, a country may only provide funding to parties which have more than a certain number of candidates or supporters.<ref name=idea/> A common argument for public funding of political parties is that it creates fairer and more democratic elections by enabling more groups to compete, whereas many advocates for private funding of parties argue that donations to parties are a form of political expression that should be protected in a democracy.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Completed_Inquiries/em/political%20funding/Report/Chapter3 |title=Report of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters |publisher=Parliament of Australia |date=9 December 2011 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=29 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129093924/https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Completed_Inquiries/em/political%20funding/Report/Chapter3 |url-status=live }}</ref> Public financing of political parties may decrease parties' pursuit of funds through corrupt methods, by decreasing their incentive to find alternate sources of funding.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Marcus |last=Meitzner |title=Party Financing in Post-Soeharto Indonesia: Between State Subsidies and Political Corruption |journal=Contemporary Southeast Asia |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=238–263 |date=August 2007 |jstor=25798830 |s2cid=154173938}}</ref>

One way of categorizing the sources of party funding is between public funding and private funding. Another dichotomy is between plutocratic and grassroots sources; parties which get much of their funding from large corporations may tend to pursue different policies and use different strategies than parties which are mostly funded through small donations by individual supporters.<ref name=scarrow07>{{cite journal |first=Susan E. |last=Scarrow |title=Political Finance in Comparative Perspective |journal=Annual Review of Political Science |volume=10 |pages=193–210 |date=15 June 2007 |doi=10.1146/annurev.polisci.10.080505.100115|doi-access=free }}</ref> Private funding for political parties can also be thought of as coming from internal or external sources: this distinguishes between dues from party members or contributions by candidates, and donations from entities outside of the party like non-members, corporations, or trade unions.<ref name=scarrow07/> Internal funding may be preferred because external sources might make the party beholden to an outside entity.<ref name=scarrow07/>

===Uses for party funds===
There are many ways in which political parties may deploy money in order to secure better electoral outcomes. Parties often spend money to train activists, recruit volunteers, create and deploy advertisements, conduct research and support for their leadership in between elections, and promote their policy agenda.<ref name=fisher04/> Many political parties and candidates engage in a practice called [[clientelism]], in which they distribute material rewards to people in exchange for political support; in many countries this is illegal, though even where it is illegal it may nevertheless be widespread in practice.<ref>{{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Corstange |year=2016 |title=The Price of a Vote in the Middle East: Clientelism and Communal Politics in Lebanon and Yemen |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=8 |isbn=978-1107106673}}</ref> Some parties engage directly in [[vote buying]], in which a party gives money to a person in exchange for their vote.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Cesi |last=Cruz |title=Social Networks and the Targeting of Vote Buying |journal=Comparative Political Studies |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=382–411 |date=7 August 2018 |doi=10.1177/0010414018784062|s2cid=158712487 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Though it may be crucial for a party to spend more than some threshold to win a given election, there are typically [[diminishing returns]] for expenses during a campaign.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Chris W. Bonneau |author2=Damon M. Cann |title=Campaign Spending, Diminishing Marginal Returns, and Campaign Finance Restrictions in Judicial Elections |journal=The Journal of Politics |volume=73 |issue=4 |pages=1267–1280 |date=October 2011 |doi=10.1017/S0022381611000934}}</ref> Once a party has crossed a particular spending threshold, additional expenditures might not increase their chance of success.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2020/11/27/the-2020-election-was-the-most-expensive-in-history-but-campaign-spending-does-not-always-lead-to-success/ |title=The 2020 election was the most expensive in history, but campaign spending does not always lead to success |publisher=[[London School of Economics]] |date=27 November 2020 |first=William |last=Horncastle |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=16 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116041427/https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2020/11/27/the-2020-election-was-the-most-expensive-in-history-but-campaign-spending-does-not-always-lead-to-success/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Restrictions===
Fundraising and expenditures by political parties are typically regulated by governments, with many countries' regulations focusing on who can contribute money to parties, how parties' money can be spent, and how much of it can pass through the hands of a political party.<ref name=hamada18>{{cite web |url=https://www.idea.int/news-media/news/let%E2%80%99s-talk-about-money-comparative-perspectives-political-finance-regulations |title=Let's talk about money: comparative perspectives on political finance regulations |publisher=[[International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance]] |first=Yukihiko |last=Hamada |date=11 December 2018 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=30 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130022603/https://www.idea.int/news-media/news/let%E2%80%99s-talk-about-money-comparative-perspectives-political-finance-regulations |url-status=live }}</ref> Two main ways in which regulations affect parties are by intervening in their sources of income and by mandating that they maintain some level of transparency about their funding.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=David L. Wiltse |author2=Raymond J. La Raja |author3=Dorie E. Apollonio |title=Typologies of Party Finance Systems: A Comparative Study of How Countries Regulate Party Finance and Their Institutional Foundations |journal=Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=243–261 |date=11 September 2019 |doi=10.1089/elj.2018.0493|pmid=34113217 |pmc=8189065 }}</ref> One common type of restriction on how parties acquire money is to limit who can donate money to political parties; for example, people who are not citizens of a country may not be allowed to make contributions to that country's political parties, in order to prevent foreign interference.<ref name=hamada18/> It is also common to limit how much money an individual can give to a political party each election.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/law/help/campaign-finance/comparative-summary.php |title=Campaign Finance: Comparative Summary |first=Nicole |last=Atwill |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |date=May 2009 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=1 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210401021514/https://www.loc.gov/law/help/campaign-finance/comparative-summary.php |url-status=live }}</ref> Similarly, many governments cap the total amount of money that can be spent by each party in an election.<ref name=levush16/> Transparency regulations may require parties to disclose detailed financial information to the government, and in many countries transparency laws require those disclosures to be available to the public, as a safeguard against potential corruption.<ref name=fisher04/> Creating, implementing, and amending laws regarding party expenses can be extremely difficult, since governments may be controlled by the very parties that these regulations restrict.<ref name=fisher04/>