Party Financing in New Democracies

Abstract

In the relatively young democracies of Spain and Portugal, public funding plays a critical role in the financing of political parties, which generally lack the organizational capacity to generate their own income. The rules and practice of party financing show that, in addition to the overall heavy dependence on the state, by far the greatest part of the public money is assigned to the party central office. In this sense, they contradict the West European tendency, where it is the party in public office that has become the more privileged face of the party organization in recent times.