What are Party Foundations?
They are normally organisations closely linked with a particular political party, even though they have a distinct legal status. These foundations, see also Funding of Party Overseas Activities, generally carry out work that benefits the parent party but that is not directly connected with the immediate task of electioneering. Party foundations typically conduct courses to educate party members or sympathisers in political work;
they are sometimes responsible for policy research, for maintaining the parent party's archives, and for assistance to sister parties in foreign countries.
The most important examples of party foundations are the German Stiftungen (Foundations). They are:
- Friedrich Ebert Foundation (linked with the Social Democrats)
- Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Christian Democrats)
- Friedrich Naumann Foundation (Free Democrats)
- Hanns Seidel Foundation (the Bavaria-based Christian Social Union)
- Heinrich Boll Foundation (The Greens)
Examples of other political foundations in Western Europe are:
- Dr. Karl Renner Institut, Austria (linked with the Austrian Social Democrats)
- Fondation Jean Jaures, France ( French Socialist Party)
- Eduardo Frei Foundation for International Solidarity, The Netherlands (Christian Democratic Appeal and Christian Democrat Parties)
- Alfred Mozer Stichting, The Netherlands (Dutch Labour Party)
- Centerns Internationella Fond, Sweden (Centre Party)
- Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation, Sweden (Swedish Moderate Party)
- Olof Palme International Centre (Swedish Social Democratic Party)
- Swedish International Liberal Centre (Liberal Party)
The sizes of different foundations vary greatly. The most impressive and established are the German Stiftungen. According to a report prepared in June 1996 by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, the five German Stiftungen had a combined budget in 1996 of no less than US$450 million. The Stiftungen broadly match their parent parties in the size of their staffs and in their budgets.
Arguments in Favour of Party Foundations
Since party foundations generally receive the bulk of their funds from the public purse, opinions about their merits vary according to each commentator's judgement of the merits of state funding of political parties.
To supporters of the principle of state aid, the financing of foundations is justified and valuable. Since parties have a number of crucial roles in a democracy, it stands to reason that they should receive sufficient resources to permit them to carry out these roles. If political participation is important, then parties should have the resources to organise programmes of political education for their members and for would-be members. If parties are to present policy alternatives to those of the government's civil servants, then they must receive funding to enable them to carry out policy research. The 1991 report of the Canadian Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing accepted this line of argument when it proposed additional state aid to create a network of party foundations in Canada on the European model.
Arguments Against Party Foundations
Those who criticise state aid to political parties point out that 'party foundations' exist to provide legal loopholes. Since the German Stiftungen are, technically, independent of their parent parties, they are in a position to receive public funds which (for various constitutional reasons) cannot be given by the state to the parties themselves. The foundations' existence serves to disguise from the electors the full extent of the parties' reliance on the public purse.
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