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Political Corruption and Campaign Contribution

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Political Corruption and Campaign Contribution Report 2008: 2 Department of Criminology Report Series Political Corruption and Campaign Financing Political Corruption and Campaign Financing Nubia Evertsson Political Corruption and Campaign Financing © Nubia Evertsson Report 2008: 2 Department of Criminology Report Series ISSN 1400-853X ISBN 978-91-7155-781-0 (This version replaces ISBN 978-91-7155-727-8 after corrections) Printed by US-AB Stockholm University, Stockholm First published 2008 Each State Party shall also consider taking appropriate legislative and administrative measures, consistent with the objectives of this Convention and in accordance with the fundamental principles of its domestic law, to enhance transparency in the funding of candidates for elected public office and, where applicable the funding of political parties. Article 7 (3) of the United Nation’s Convention against Corruption TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables.............................................................................................................................................................. ii List of Boxes ............................................................................................................................................................... ii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................................ ii List of Appendixes .................................................................................................................................................... ii Abstract ...................................................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................................................. iv Note about the author ........................................................................................................................................... v Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Definitions ..................................................................................................................................................... 7 1.1. Defining corruption ........................................................................................................................... 7 1.2. Defining political corruption .......................................................................................................... 9 1.2.1. Forms of political corruption .............................................................................................. 14 1.2.2. Campaign financing as a form of political corruption ............................................... 27 2. Reciprocities and campaign financing ............................................................................................. 35 2.1. The social function of gift giving ................................................................................................ 36 2.2. The communicative meaning of gift giving ............................................................................ 41 2.3. Campaign financing as a political gift....................................................................................... 44 3. Beyond campaign contributions ........................................................................................................ 50 3.1. The method: cross-country analysis ........................................................................................ 50 3.2. The variables included in the model ........................................................................................ 54 3.2.1. The dependent variable: proxies of political corruption.......................................... 55 3.2.2. The independent variables: campaign financing and the political context ....... 66 3.3. The results .......................................................................................................................................... 72 4. Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................ 78 References ................................................................................................................................................................ 83 Appendixes .............................................................................................................................................................. 95 i LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Classification of political corruption in terms of types of wrongdoing according to Caiden .......................................................................................................................................................... 18 Table 2. Types of wrongdoing that should not be classified as political corruption .......... 19 Table 3. Corruption practices penalized in international legal instruments ........................ 21 Table 4. Comparison of gifts, electoral campaign financing and bribes .................................. 28 Table 5. Bans on sources of donations to political parties in 207 countries ......................... 31 Table 6. Some financial provisions applicable during elections in 108 countries .............. 32 Table 7. Campaign financing by industries in the USA elections of 2004 and 2006 .......... 33 Table 8. Concepts measured in the Graft index and sources of information ........................ 60 Table 9. Concepts measured in the CPI index and sources of information ............................ 64 Table 10. Basis for classifying countries’ electoral financing ...................................................... 68 Table 11. Variables included in the statistical analysis and their respective sources ....... 71 Table 12. Regression results: Electoral financing and political corruption .......................... 73 LIST OF BOXES Box 1. What a legislator can receive from a lobbyist in the USA ................................................ 30 Box 2. Questions on the origin of electoral financing ..................................................................... 68 Box 3. Questions on regulatory provisions relating to electoral financing ............................ 69 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. The sequence of giving and receiving campaign contributions .............................. 47 LIST OF APPENDIXES Appendix 1. Gifts regulation for lobbyists in the US ....................................................................... 96 Appendix 2. Campaign contributions by top donors in the USA elections of 2004 and 2006 .................................................................................................................................................................100 Appendix 3. List of countries included in the final sample ........................................................101 ii ABSTRACT Although political leaders, donors and some scholars would argue that there is nothing illegal behind the idea of giving and receiving campaign contributions, this research attempts to demonstrate the contrary. Here, I claim that small and large contributions constitute representations of political corruption because they are given for specific purposes either ideological or personal. Since the relationship between campaign financing and political corruption has not been studied worldwide, in this thesis I conduct a cross-country analysis of 83 countries and find that there is less political corruption: 1) in countries where elections are not funded with public resources; 2) in countries where the impact of legal campaign financing on public policy outcomes is lower; 3) in countries where regulations impose ceilings on election expenses and on the amount of money that parties/candidates can raise in each election; and 4) in countries where regulations make the public disclosure of campaign expenditures compulsory. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In a discussion with Mr Malcolm Deas, my tutor at St Antony’s College in Oxford, I started to develop the idea of studying the relationship between campaign financing and political corruption. Malcolm was not only an enthusiastic discussant but also an inspiring tutor. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to him. I would also like to convey my thanks to Professor Janne Flyghed for his helpful ideas and suggestions. He has been a supportive supervisor here at Stockholm University. My acknowledgments to the participants of the research seminars at the Department of Criminology and the Latin American Centre at Stockholm University and the Department of Politics at Gothenburg University. Special thanks to Inge Amundsen, Maria Luisa Bartolomei, Lars Korsell, Staffan Löfving, Thor Norström, and Joakim Thelander for their valuable comments during these seminars. Thanks also to Hans von Hoffer and Henrik Tham for their written comments. I would also like to express my gratitude to Jan-Olov Persson from the Statistical Research Group at the Department of Mathematics, Stockholm University, for his assistance with the regression model and David Shannon for assisting with the English edition of this manuscript. I want to acknowledge the generosity of funders during these first years of research at Stockholm University: the Anna Ahlströn
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