Public Perspectives On Political Party Funding
The general public would like to see the reform of political party funding bringing about greater controls on the influence from the affluent few and reinvigoration of local politics, according to deliberative research carried out by Ipsos on behalf of the Electoral Commission. This report outlines the findings from five deliberative workshops across the UK, and a further reconvened workshop which enabled the debate to be developed. The report will feed into Sir Hayden Phillip's Review of the Funding of Political Parties.
Over the course of the workshops, and as participants gained more information about the measures already in place, they came to the view that their aims could be achieved with relatively little change to the current party funding system. The two main criteria against which participants measured specific proposals were;
- whether they would contribute towards democratic renewal;
- whether they would encourage parties to achieve measurable results, such as increasing membership or engaging more effectively at the local level.
Participants supported specific measures they felt would achieve these criteria, including;
- greater accountability;
- party spending being brought under control;
- limiting the potential for wealthy individuals to buy influence;
- awareness-raising in regard to specific transparency measures;
- reinvigorating politics at the local level.
Download the report pdf, 2MB
Technical details
The initial five workshops were held in York, London, Edinburgh,Cardiff and Belfast between 19 August and 21 October 2006. There were 25-30 participants at each event, aged between 18 and 75, and reflecting a good mix of age, gender, social grade, political interest and political knowledge. The reconvened workshop was held in London on 28th October, with 30 participants who had attended the workshops in York, London, Edinburgh and Cardiff.
