The politics of party funding (original) (raw)

This paper examines the relationship between party funding regimes and ideological polarization in political parties, focusing on four European democracies: Germany, Sweden, Britain, and France. The author utilizes process-tracing and discourse analysis to identify causal mechanisms influencing party funding reforms, highlighting the significance of partisan consensus, institutional factors, and social discourse surrounding political corruption. The findings challenge the notion that consensus is a necessary condition for funding reform, while emphasizing the varying weight of causal factors across different contexts.