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Financing Political Parties : The Austrian Case

Explore the financing of political parties in Austria, including regulations, sources of funding, political personnel, recent debates, and historical development. Discover the multi-dimensional system of financing, contested boundaries, visible and invisible sources, and the level of financing across federal and regional schemes.

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Financing Political Parties : The Austrian Case

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  1. Financing Political Parties:The Austrian Case Christian Fleck DeptofSociology University of Graz

  2. Overview • Financing of parties in Austria • Regulations and enforcement • Political personnel • Recent debate and suggested reforms • Sketch of historical development

  3. Sources of financing parties in Austria Multi-dimensional system: • Visible • Invisible • Official, legal: bylaw • Unofficial, factual: law-abing but also sometimes illegal

  4. Contestedboundaries Unofficially (factual, law-abiding,but also sometimes illegal) Officially (legal) • membershipfees, • donors, • statesubsidy • obligatory „donations“ bypoliticians („party tax“), • staffofexecutives (administration), • subunits, front organisations, (Relative)Visible • „personnelsusidy,“ • pricesupports, discounts, • financialaidbycorporations (small & large), • „outsourcing“ ofstaffandprepworktocompetenceunits (e.g. chambers, specialinterestgroups, unions, etc.) • front organisations, • partyenterprises, • bankloans, • financialdonationsbyindividuals (small & large) & bycorporations • staffofpoliticians (Mostly) Invisible

  5. Level of financing parties in Austria Multi-levelsystem: • Federal regulations & schemes(ca. € 46 mio in 2011) • basicsupport • forparties, • basicsupportparlimentgroups, • basicsupportpartyacademies, • basicsupportpartypublications, • per voterforeachcampaign • Regional schemes(ca. € 123 mio in 2011) Ca. € 27 per eligiblevoter (in 2011)

  6. Regulationsandenforcement • System ofregulationyes • Provision fordisclosureno • Do donorshavetodisclosecontributionsno • Do partieshavetodisclosecontributionsno • Anybansno • Ceilingofexpenditureorcontributionsno • Free mediaaccessno Source: IDEA http://www.idea.int/parties/finance/db/

  7. Austria‘spoliticalpersonnel ca. 900.000 partymembers, ofthemabout 110.000 active (mostlyvolunteers), ca. 50.000 publicoffices ca. 240 M.P.s, ca. 450 regional assemblymen, 2350 mayors(i.e. publiclypaidpoliticians, ca 1000 fulltime) ca. 1700 staffer, partyclerks, etc.

  8. Recentdebates • Corruption • Party-mediarelations • Ongoingdebate on disclosure, regulations • Parlimentaryfact-findingcommissionforthcoming • Fundamental revisionunlikely

  9. Historical background • 1945: threepartiesfoundedthe so-called Second Republic • 1947-66: ConservativesandSocialDemocratsformed Great Coalition + distributedthepoliticalsystembeyondeachother • 1966-83: onepartygovernment, but still corporatism • 1983-87: SocialDemocrats + rightliberalsgov. • 1987-2000: again Great Coalition • 2000-07: Conservatives + right-wingpopulistgov. • since 2007: again Great Coalition

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