Abstract
This chapter traces the institutional development of the way in which political parties are funded in Great Britain. This evolution is separated into four distinct eras: the aristocratic era, the plutocratic era, the modern era and the ‘stop-go’ era. History has a long causal tail and developments and decisions made in the aristocratic era have fundamentally shaped legislation passed in the ‘stop-go’ era. I then unpick why further reform, inclusive of the introduction of greater levels of state subsidy, has proven so hard to implement in Great Britain. There are three institutional locks preventing this: public opinion, timing and the relationship between the two major parties and their institutional donors.
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Notes
- 1.
It should also be noted that CIPPA was passed with support from both Liberals and Conservatives. Therefore, although not involving the introduction of state funding echoing the argument of Michael Koß that an intervention as important as this (and relating to party funding regime change) requires the consent of all major parties (Koß 2011).
- 2.
Non-union sponsored candidates tended to be funded by local socialist societies or local trade councils, though their expenses were often considerably lower than their union sponsored colleagues.
- 3.
This situation mirrors the recent history of Canadian political finance reforms (Young 2015).
- 4.
Though in 2017 the three parties had little to say about further reform. This was also largely the case in 2019, although the Liberal Democrats had a similar pledge to their 2015 manifesto to ‘introduce wider reforms to party funding along the lines of the 2011 report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life’.
- 5.
For example, Phillips recommended phasing out extra state support added by 2020.
- 6.
Which rather neatly encapsulates many post-Brexit discussions being held around dinner tables across the country, when you think about it.
- 7.
‘It has become a well-established custom that matters affecting the interests of rival parties should not be settled by the imposition of the will of one side over the other, but by an agreement reached either between the leaders of the main parties or by conferences under the impartial guidance of Mr Speaker’ (Churchill 1948—HC Deb, 16 February 1948, col 859).
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Power, S. (2020). The Institutional Evolution of the Party Funding Regime in Great Britain. In: Party Funding and Corruption. Political Corruption and Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37580-5_6
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