In view of the high costs of public subsidies for political parties and candidates, it is not surprising that the public have been suspicious about the opportunities they have given for politicians to feather their own nests. As Gullan Gidlund reports,
'A common characteristic in the Nordic countries is that opinion polls and other studies have shown that the general public has been less enthusiastic and more negative than its political representatives towards the parties being financed, to a large extent, by public funds'.25 In Italy, a referendum held in April 1993 resulted in a 90.3 percent vote to abolish public financing for parties, both for election campaigns and for routine organisational expenses of the party organisations. The system of subsidies introduced in 1974 was, therefore, abandoned. However, a new law reintroduced another public funding scheme in the form campaign reimbursements for campaigns for the legislature.'
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