An important set of measures which are part of the electoral legislation are specifically targeted at the parties and candidates.
One question has to do with what is required for the parties running for national elections to be officially registered. In 40% of the countries one such requirement consists in a monetary deposit. This practice does not vary significantly across the continents; it is unrelated to the degree of democracy or economic development. The measure is somewhat more popular in former French colonies.
A second aspect concerns the legal qualifications to become a candidate at legislative elections. A residence requirement is mandated in 40% of the cases and a literacy or education threshold is imposed in 17% of the countries. The residence qualification is found most often in the Americas while literacy tests are to be found mostly in Africa and the Middle East, and more generally in former British colonies. More democratic countries are less prone to screen out candidates on the basis of their “competence”, perhaps an indication that the democratic credo rejects explicitly excluding people on the basis of socio-demographic characteristics.
A third set of issues concerns parties’ eligibility to receive public (direct or indirect) or private funding. The dominant pattern is clearly to allow both: public funding is permitted in 74% of the countries and private donations are legal in 85% of them. Public funding is almost universal in Europe (only one exception, Belarus), but relatively infrequent in the Middle East and Pacific. Bans on private funding seem to take place almost exclusively in less democratic countries while public funding tends to be exceptional in former British colonies.
We finally examined whether independent candidates are allowed to compete in legislative elections. The answer is “Yes” in 80% of the countries. Such is the dominant pattern in all regions of the world and knows of only few exceptions in former British colonies (Guyana, Israel, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa).
There seem to be a certain number of norms that are respected in most countries with respect to the regulation of parties and candidates:
- One such norm is that there should be no education or literacy requirement for candidates, and that norm is particularly strong in more democratic countries.
- The second norm is that independent candidates should be allowed to run, and that norm is particularly strong in former British colonies.
- The third norm is that both public and private funding should be permitted; that norm is particularly strong among more democratic countries with respect to private funding and somewhat weaker in former British colonies in the case of public funding.
The impact of degree of democracy, colonial heritage and economic
development on rules for parties and candidates
| PARTIES AND CANDIDATES |
Degree of democracy |
Former French colony |
Former British colony |
Former Spanish colony |
Economic development |
Monetary deposit requirement
|
-
|
more likely
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Residence qualification requirement
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Literacy or education requirement
|
less likely in more democratic countries
|
-
|
more likely
|
-
|
-
|
| Public funding |
- |
- |
less likely |
-
|
-
|
| Private funding |
more likely in democratic countries |
- |
- |
-
|
-
|
| Independent candidates allowed |
- |
- |
more likely |
-
|
-
|
