[open-government] New research and resources from the Money, Politics and Transparency project

Thu Jul 16 12:43:17 UTC 2015

**Apologies for cross-posting**

Hi all,

Today, Money, Politics and Transparency
<http://moneypoliticstransparency.org>, a joint project between Sunlight,
Global Integrity and the Electoral Integrity Project, could not be more
excited to launch our revamped website
<http://moneypoliticstransparency.org>, including a first-of-its-kind
dataset and series of case studies
<http://moneypoliticstransparency.org/casestudies> documenting campaign
finance transparency practices globally. We are also fueling next steps for
policy advocates through the release of the Declaration on Political
Finance Openness for public comment.
<http://moneypoliticstransparency.org/declaration> We hope these resources
will become an asset to transparency and political finance advocates
globally.

You can see our full announcement below or on the Sunlight blog
<http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2015/07/16/new-resources-from-the-money-politics-and-transparency-project-expose-moneys-troubling-role-in-politics/>.
We look forward to hearing your feedback on these resources.

Today, the Money, Politics and Transparency
<http://moneypoliticstransparency.org/> (MPT) project, a joint-initiative
between the Sunlight Foundation, Global Integrity and the Electoral
Integrity Project, is excited to release a new set of resources that expose
money’s troubling role in political parties and election campaigns globally.

Our revamped Money, Politics and Transparency website
<http://moneypoliticstransparency.org/> now includes a first-of-its-kind
dataset <http://data.moneypoliticstransparency.org/> andseries of case
studies <http://moneypoliticstransparency.org/casestudies> documenting
campaign finance transparency practices globally. We are also fueling next
steps for policy advocates through the release of the Declaration on
Political Finance Openness for public comment
<http://moneypoliticstransparency.org/declaration>.

Global dissatisfaction with the funding of political parties and elections
is undeniable. Citizens, advocates, journalists and policymakers often
voice concerns about the associated risks of corruption, undue influence
and the potential for abuse of state resources that money’s role presents.
However, our new findings substantiate vague anecdotes of corrupt practices
and cronyism with a rigorous methodology that gives national-level
reformers a starting point to inform their advocacy efforts. The Campaign
Finance Indicators systematically assess the regulation and enforcement of
political finance across 54 diverse countries, while the in-depth
comparative case studies shed light on ways in which states around the
world attempt to regulate the role of money in politics, what triggers
landmark reforms as well as what works, what fails and why. Finally, the
MPT Declaration builds upon the research components and existing
international standards for combating corruption to create an affirmative
vision for reforming political finance systems.

The Campaign Finance Indicators and case studies reveal the following key
challenges in regulating political finance practices:

   - *Systems of public funding for political parties and elections are
   often unfairly distributed and ripe for abuse.* Although public funding
   programs are often employed to prevent political actors from relying solely
   on private sector donors, these systems are often inequitably implemented.
   In 94 percent of the countries researched in the Campaign Finance
   Indicators, political actors deploy state resources for electoral gain.
   Abuses take diverse forms, ranging from the relatively mundane (traveling
   to campaign events in state-owned helicopters in Bangladesh) to the
   dramatic (deploying agents of the national intelligence agency in Korea).

   - *Details on how political parties and elections are funded are still
   distressingly opaque.*Despite widespread efforts globally to strengthen
   disclosure requirements, full details on the donations and expenditures of
   political actors are rarely publicly available — and they are even less
   likely to be usable. In 96 percent of the Campaign Finance Indicators
   sample, there is limited or no information on the financial activities of
   political actors made available to the public in a timely fashion, online
   and in an accessible format. In fact, only the U.S. and Australia make all
   reported political finance information available online in machine-readable
   formats.

   - *Scandals can power political finance reform.* The cross-national
   evidence shows that rational political parties are responsive to corruption
   scandals and demands of powerful interest groups. Italy, for example, had
   no legislation regarding the funding of political parties until 1974, when
   a scandal generated citizen mistrust and the first political finance law
   was passed in a record 40 days.

   - *Widespread lack of regulation of third-party actors contributes to
   poor oversight and lack of transparency in political finance
systems. *Third-party
   actors who solicit contributions and make expenditures related to electoral
   campaigns are rarely subject to oversight. Only 11 percent of the countries
   researched in the Campaign Finance Indicators regulate the electoral
   activities of nonprofits, unions and independent expenditure groups.

   - *Regulations are only meaningful when there is a capability for
   enforcement — which is highly restricted in many states.* Partisan
   appointments, insufficient staff and budget, and a lack of substantive
   legal power hinder oversight bodies in countries as diverse as the U.S.,
   Romania, Nigeria and Russia, and can lead to corruption and imbalanced
   party competition.

These findings confirm the weighty challenges that lay ahead for the
political finance reform community (a network that can be found through the MPT
google group
<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/money-politics-transparency>).
There is much work to be done, but also unlimited potential for progress,
and a diverse global community dedicated to this issue is essential to
generating change.

Today, we are also excited to launch the Declaration on Political Finance
Openness. It’s intended to build consensus among the interests of the
community monitoring political finance, uniting CSOs, journalists,
academics and even civic hackers behind an affirmative vision for what we
believe a robust, open and accountable political finance system looks like.
The forthcoming provision commentary will also be released this fall
alongside the finalized document, which will provide background, specific
examples and guidance for policymakers. We hope that the MPT Declaration
will ultimately become a platform that advocates can present to political
parties and government officials to support their campaigns for reform.

We are now opening up the document for a public comment period to ensure
that the MPT Declaration truly encompasses the widest range of perspectives
from the global community. We welcome and encourage you to provide feedback
on the document by commenting on the Money, Politics and Transparency web
page <http://moneypoliticstransparency.org/declaration>. Additionally, if
you have any questions about the MPT Declaration or would like to share
comments privately, please direct them to Sunlight International Policy
Analyst Lindsay Ferris at lferris at sunlightfoundation.com. We believe that
the Declaration of Political Finance Openness will only be as strong as the
champions behind it. We look forward to hearing from you.

-- 
Lindsay Ferris
International Policy Analyst | Sunlight Foundation
202.742.1520 (w) | 703.945.3659 (m)
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Sunlight Foundation on Facebook]
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Twitter] <http://twitter.com/sunfoundation>[image: OpenGov on Reddit]
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