Development of the Share of Membership Fees and Donations On
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Masaryk University Faculty of Economics and Administration Study program: Public Economy and Administration DEVELOPMENT OF THE SHARE OF MEMBERSHIP FEES AND DONATIONS ON FUNDING OF SELECTED POLITICAL PARTIES AND MOVEMENTS DURING 1998-2013 Vývoj podílu členských příspěvků a darů na financování vybraných politických stran a hnutí v letech 1998-2013 Diploma thesis Thesis Supervisors: Author: Ing. Marek Pavlik, Ph.D. (MU) Roman ŠVEC Prof. Hannu Laurila (UTA) Brno, 2016 Jméno a příjmení autora: Roman Švec Název diplomové práce: Vývoj podílu členských příspěvků a darů na financování vybraných politických stran a hnutí v letech 1998-2013 Název práce v angličtině: Development of the share of membership fees and donations on funding of selected political parties and movements during 1998-2013 Katedra: Veřejné ekonomie Vedoucí diplomové práce: Ing. Marek Pavlík, Ph.D., Profesor Hannu Laurila Rok obhajoby: 2016 Anotace Financování politických stran a hnutí se stalo důležitým aspektem politického života. Strany mohou získávat peníze různými způsoby, nicméně hlavní pozornost v této diplomové práci je věnována darům a členským příspěvkům. Oba dva tyto typy financování byly již několikrát zkoumány, nikoliv však z pohledu samotných politiků. Zkoumal jsem dary přijaté od členů Parlamentu a krajských politiků a zabýval se otázkou, zdali zde existují nějaké prokazatelné odlišnosti ve výši darů přijatých od těchto dvou skupin politiků. Testování bylo provedeno jak na všech politicích jako celku, tak i zvlášť v rámci jednotlivých vybraných politických stran a hnutí. Prozkoumány byly také vybrané členské příspěvky jednotlivými politickými stranami a hnutími, výše členských příspěvků a velikost členských základen. V diplomové práci je navíc prezentováno několik zajímavých statistik ohledně obou těchto typů financování. Annotation The financing of political parties and movements has become an important aspect of political life. Parties can raise money by different means but the focus of this diploma thesis is on donations and membership fees. Both of these have already been researched various times but not from the perspective of politicians. I have examined donations by Members of Czech Parliament and Regional politicians and have researched whether there are significant differences between the amounts of donations by these two groups of politicians. Testing was done on donations by politicians as a whole as well as separately on selected political parties and movements. Also the amount of membership fees raised by political parties and movements, the amount of membership fees, and member´s base were explored. Furthermore, many statistics regarding both of these types of funding are presented in the master´s thesis. Klíčová slova politické strany a hnutí, výroční finanční zprávy, financování, dary, dárci, členské příspěvky, příjmy, transparentnost, zvolení politici Keywords political parties and movements, annual financial reports, funding, donations, donors, membership fees, revenues, transparency, elected politicians Declaration I hereby declare that I have developed and written the thesis independently, using only the sources listed in accordance with Czech legal regulations and the internal regulations of the Masaryk University and the Faculty of Economics and Administration. In Brno, May 2016 Author’s signature Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude for the remarkable support, professional guidance, and especially great patience provided by my thesis supervisor Ing. Marek Pavlik, Ph.D. Furthermore, I would like to thank my Finnish supervisor Prof. Hannu Laurila for his guidance and support in terms of the master´s double degree program at University of Tampere. Lastly I would like to thank my parents who have always been supportive and kept me positive about my studies and who kindly helped whenever I needed it. CONTENT INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 14 1 FINANCING OF POLITICAL PARTIES AND MOVEMENTS .................................... 16 1.1 Types of funding and legislation ................................................................................ 17 1.2 Donations in Czech Republic ..................................................................................... 19 1.3 Donations abroad ....................................................................................................... 22 1.4 Membership fees ........................................................................................................ 25 2 CZECH POLITICAL SYSTEM, PARTIES, AND MOVEMENTS ................................ 27 2.1 Governmental Institutions .......................................................................................... 27 2.2 Major Czech political parties and movements ........................................................... 30 2.3 Results of elections and power ................................................................................... 35 3 ANALYSIS OF DONATIONS ......................................................................................... 41 3.1 Methodology and data analysis .................................................................................. 41 3.2 Donations in political parties and movements ........................................................... 49 3.2.1 Party-wise analyses ............................................................................................. 50 3.2.2 Major findings ..................................................................................................... 73 4 ANALYSIS OF MEMBERSHIP FEES ............................................................................ 75 4.1 Members and amount of membership fees ................................................................ 75 4.2 Membership fees - test ............................................................................................... 77 4.3 Major findings ............................................................................................................ 80 5 DISCUSSION AND RECOMENDATIONS .................................................................... 81 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................... 88 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 90 LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... 99 LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ 100 LIST OF ACRONYMS .......................................................................................................... 100 LIST OF APPENDICES ......................................................................................................... 101 INTRODUCTION The connection between politics and money is increasing from year to year and one could not exist without each other. Politics itself and its executors – politicians, have an inevitable impact on a various number of businesses worldwide and in reverse these companies do have an impact on politics and politicians. I consider researching the financing of the political parties and movements extremely important and interesting in the same time. It was surprising to me that in 21st century I could find so little information about the funding of the Czech political parties and movements on the internet, as well as the fact that most of the issues concerning the financing of the political parties and movements can be found only in the headquarters of selected political parties and movements or in the Parliamentary library in Prague. These facts together with my personal interest in politics led me to the idea of researching political finances. The key areas that I chose to do my research on are donations from politicians to its own political parties or movements and membership fees. These areas have not been researched that deeply yet in the Czech Republic despite the potentially interesting data and questions available there. The main aim of this master´s thesis is to determine what the shares of membership fees and donations from total incomes of the parties are, and whether there are demonstrable trends or dependencies in their amount and structure with respect to donations and membership fees of political parties and movements. The main focus is on politicians whose mandates bring money from the state budget to their political parties and movements. These functions are – Members of Chamber of Deputies, the Senators, and Regional politicians. This dismemberment plays a key role in my research on donations made by politicians from these three groups. I was prevalently interested in the question of whether politicians are expected to donate to their parties once they were given the trust of the parties and people during elections as well as the question of possible corruption. This leads to the hypothesis examined in this diploma thesis: Assuming that Members of the Chamber of Deputies, the Senators or Regional politicians donate money to their political parties or movements in the form of donations, we suppose that the amount of money donated by Regional politicians will be different from the amount donated by Members of the Chamber of Deputies or the Senators. 14 Donations made by politicians can be also hidden in the membership