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The Problem with Party FinanceTheoretical Perspectives on the Funding of Party PoliticsDepartment of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton St, London WC2A 2AE, UKJ.R.Hopkin{at}lse.ac.uk This article presents some theoretical contours for the study of party finance and its consequences. Two broad issues are explored. First, the article develops an account of changes in patterns of party finance, and in particular the move away from the mass party model of funding towards elite party and cartel party models. Party finance is conceptualized as a collective action problem, and four post-mass party financial strategies are identified. Second, the article addresses normative issues, assessing how these four financial models perform in terms of liberal and populist theories of democracy. It is concluded that the mass party model remains closest to the democratic ideal, while the state-financed (cartel) model is a reasonable pragmatic response to the decline in party membership.
Key Words: collective action funding membership decline normative theory party models
Party Politics, Vol. 10, No. 6,
627-651 (2004) This article has been cited by other articles:
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