The Financing of Political
parties in France
Annil Bianchini, France
Out of concern for ethics and
transparency, which are indispensable for life in society, successive French governments
have been led to standardize, regulate and control the means of financing political
parties. In twelve years, the successive adoption of four laws has provided a legal
framework for financing parties and election campaigns.
For more than twelve years, French
legislature has undertaken to regulate French political life. But it has always intervened
on the spot, in a context marked by causes of financing by secret funds. Hence, the laws
of 11 March 1988 set a ceiling on electoral expenditures during national elections. They
also introduced a system of public financing of political parties. The laws of 15 January
and 10 May 1990 made it illegal to use the most expensive forms of propaganda. They also
extended the principle of a ceiling on electoral spending in local elections. Finally,
they also set up a National Commission for Campaign Accounts and Political Financing to
ensure that the law is respected. The laws of 19 and 20 January 1995, which partly follow
on the laws of 29 January 1993, banned financing by firms and, more generally, by legal
entities.
This sudden spurt of activity of French
legislative mechanism is all the more remarkable as, until 1988, there were no regulations
on the matter. Consequently, political parties and their candidates managed as they could.
Everyone has his own financing with help from sympathetic firms and militants. After being
long ignored by the law, the matter of the financing of political parties and election
campaigns has thus become one of the most juridical ever.
The National Commission for Campaign Accounts
and Political Financing, created by the law of 15 January 1990, is an administrative
authority whose role it is to examine the campaign accounts of candidates present in
electoral constituencies of over 9,000 inhabitants. It receives and publishes the accounts
of parties and political groups and gives its approval of their financing associations.
The law provides that "the electoral expenditures of candidates in elections benefit
from a flat refund equal 50% of the ceiling of their expenditures", with only the
expenditures paid out of their personal monies being reimbursed to the candidates or those
made with the help of funds which they still owe. Moreover, the law stipulates that
"the flat refund is not made to candidates having obtained less than 5% of the votes
cast in the first round of the elections".
To successfully accomplish its mission of
controlling expenditures and receipts, attributed to it by the legislature, the
Commission, made up of nine magistrates coming from three highest French juridical bodies,
the Council d' Etat, the Cour de Cassation, the Cour des Comptes, has staff put at its
disposal and an operating budget attached to that of the Ministry of Justice. It is the
judge of the election who, following the Commission for Campaign Accounts, is at liberty
to determine whether an expenditure is an electoral one or not, if the entries are sincere
and if the campaign account is exhaustive.
Since the law of 19 January 1995, political
parties live almost exclusively from state funding of through the direct financing of
election campaigns and political parties, or through tax reductions linked to donations
and subscriptions whose rate was increased by the finance law for 2000.
All in all, a real political financing law is
being set up. This law appears to be dominated by a profoundly democratic idea, that of an
equality of chances among candidates. As electoral law in general, it is highly concrete
in nature, but, more than that, it is based on the respect of legal regulations. That is
why it is important to note the modification enabling a candidate, since the law of 10
April 1996, to put his good faith forward, which is always presumed.
Sustainability
The Key to the Future
-Volker Hauff, Germany
A future world in which everything is
bigger and brighter with a clean and healthy environment whose natural diversity remains
intact: a more democratic and prosperous world which looks after its common cultural
heritage-these are the bais aims with which the Council for Sustainable Development wants
to underline its proposals for a policy of sustainable development. IN common with the
other signatories of the Agenda 21 plan approved in Rio de Janeiro 10 years ago, the
federal government is committed to presenting a National Strategy on Sustainable
Development by the Johannesburg World Summit of August 2002 equal to a political concept
which will clarify just how future issues like environmental protection and socio-economic
development will be dealt with in Germany. The federal government convened the Council for
Sustainable Development for advisory purposes, entrusting a parliamentary committee for
Sustainable Development with the task of devising a strategy.
Sustainable Development is a leading concept
with implications far beyond Germany's borders and the duration of a government's term.
Economic development in an intact environment, quality of life and social cohesion within
global responsibility-these aims lead the way at all levels of social interaction,
bringing with them the necessity for new approaches to integration and co-ordination of
political initiatives which, simultaneously, contribute towards ensuring world peace.
Recognizing new opportunities: As I
understand it, sustainable development is a workshop for reform, i.e. a process which
promotes the discussion of political concepts and economic solutions and ideas. As such,
it would be wrong to belittle the progress that has been made in Germany in areas such as
climate protections and economic solutions for environmental protection. And yet, Germans
are still a long way from being able to claim that they themselves have made a sustainable
contribution to their own ecological, economic, cultural and social development. And a
number of politicians, representatives of various interest groups, journalists and
environment activists are sceptical about sustainable development policies. Full of
mistrust, they fear that the whole thing is little more than some empty phrases uttered by
politicians which will once again lead nowhere.
I understand and respect the need for
political criticism: especially where bitter disputes about political concepts are
concerned. However, when criticism means little more than adopting a skeptical
wait-and-see attitude, then it just adds to the problem instead of solving it. The Council
will therefore no doubt ensure that it expands the slightly abstract concept of
sustainable development so as to include content and ideas. We all know there is no use in
merely appealing for 'correct behavior', which people would anyhow tend to resist. The
trick is to strike a balance between the opposite extremes of idealistic no-need-to-worry
attitudes of 'let's just carry on' and ' it will work out somehow' and the gloomily
pessimistic critical "no future" view of civilization.
Attempts to create sustainable development
harbor opportunities which go virtually unrecognized; opportunities to acquire the means
of shaping a changing society to an ever-increasing extent. In this sense, I see
sustainable development as an invitation to get politically involved, take on
responsibility, develop new ideas and survive all the in-fighting common to political
lobbies. IN Germany, too, people realize that despite all the efforts to improve the
environment over the past 30 years-there's still much to be done. Just some examples:
energy policies, legislation on renewable energy, a program of incentives to convert
100,000 roofs in addition to regulations governing biomass and saving energy; even opting
out of nuclear power are all ways of promoting the active and passive use of regenerative
sources of energy. Nonetheless, Germany is still very far from the sustainable production
and application of energy. Which primary energy providers will prove reliable in future?
What part could renewable energy play? How can energy requirements be met using less
energy? The national climate program launched in October 2000, the regulations governing
energy saving and the building restoration program all contribute towards reducing
greenhouse gases. Yet it is imperative, and possible, to save far more energy at national
level and worldwide in order to prevent climate change. How can energy consumption
patterns be changed?
Sustainable methods of producing food have
become a major issue in sustainable development strategies, especially after the outbreak
of BSE in 2000. In future, animal rearing, food consumption, agricultural output and
farmland development in country areas will be organized using sustainable development
strategies; no easy task and certainly not one that can be achieved by ministries and
farming associations alone. How can we play our part in developing an
"over-the-counter" consumer policy?
In order to make sustainable policies
comprehensible to everyone and enable people to differentiate between misleading tactics
and steps in the right direction as well as above all making quite clear what is at stake,
the Council for sustainable development has advised the federal government to set
quantifiable targets for energy, agriculture, environment, food and mobility and to make
them the cornerstones of its National Strategy on Sustainable Development. The Council has
illustrated the principles using four examples, though the choice of illustrations is not
meant to imply that other topics are any less important.
The Council also suggests emphasizing the
link between the sustainable policies and globalization at global political level since.
From the outset, sustainable development was a global concept originally cited in the
report published by the World Commission on Environment and Development chaired by Gro
Harlem Brundtland, the first organization to make a connection between global
environmental problems and the "North/South" conflict, something which is more
relevant than ever. The UN Secretary General's Millennium Report named climate change,
land preservation and farmland water supplies as the main challenges facing the world.
Globalization has also given a new impetus to old problems: the spread of the drug trade
and organized crime, to name but two examples. The key word "globalization"
focuses attention on how universal consumer patterns and global networks involving the
two-way flow of finance, economics and information in a market economy should be organized
in future. A one-sided assimilation of lifestyles under predominant 'western-oriented'
consumer patterns often means huge environmental problems as well as a diminishing of
other cultures, languages and social structures. There is worldwide resistance to such
trends.
Nowadays, around 20% of the world's
population lives in the industrialized countries. This proportion consumes around 70% of
the world's resources and continues to emit a similar percentage of cumulative carbon
dioxide emissions, one of the main reasons for climate change. The effects of such climate
changes will probably hit the poorest countries hardest, yet it is the future generations
of all countries who will be affected most of all, since carbon dioxide remains in the
atmosphere on average over 100 years and the environmental reaction, i.e. a rise in sea
level, lasts several hundred years.
Access to resources:; Particularly important
are the challenges involved in the global conservation of limited resources such as land
and water. Ensuring the future feeding of the world's populations requires putting an end
to the deterioration and loss of valuable land. In many places, equal land distribution is
a basic requirement for viable long-term use of land. Harmful substances in land and water
become time bombs for future generations who need these resources. The water resources
available outside mild climate zones are too scarce to sustain development. In many parts
of the world, access to water is the cause of wars and disputes about distribution. Yet a
firm political commitment and specific measures aimed at sustained protection and
conservation of land and water resources are still missing.
Globalization denotes the trend towards
increasingly worldwide cross-links at economic, political and cultural levels with
far-reaching consequences both in national and international politics. However, although
the existence of problems can't be denied, globalization does open up a whole range of
opportunities and possibilities as well as setting an example for universal human rights,
offering prosperity and stability as well as promoting and increasingly global feeling of
responsibility. Yet such advantages are very unevenly distributed to today's world.
Everywhere there are signs of problems and grievances resulting from the globalized
economy and exchange of goods as well as universal consumer patters. Misguided
globalization ignores both human stress limits and earth's limitations. Therefore the main
challenge is to make globalization a positive development for everyone and devise the
right regulatory framework in which a future market economy can unfold. Only as part of
such sustainable developments can globalization fulfil people's vision of a better and
fairer life together all over the world.
The Council for Sustainable Development urges
the federal government to back the idea of the UN setting up a World Commission on
Sustainable Development and Globalization at the 2002 UN World Summit on Sustainable
Development in Johannesburg. World Commissions played a big part in promoting the
political agenda of global environmental and development policies. Only one needs to think
of the Brundtland report with its catchphrase title "Our Common Future" from
1987 which globalized the term "sustainable development", taking its clue from
Willy Brandt's report to the Commission entitles "North/South-A Program for
Survival".
The Johannesburg World Summit will deal with
a range of important issues, from the ongoing development of global environmental policy
such as, for instance, global energy strategies to biological diversity, climate
protection and combating desertification in addition to health policies and managing water
resources. Another important factor is improving the organization of UN environmental
policy. The Council's proposal to set up a World Commission is not meant to be seen as an
alternative to the possibility of further developing UN environmental policy at
institutional level, currently being mooted in the run-up to the World Summit.
On the contrary: the aim is to create more
room for maneuver along more varied political lines, backed up by continuously
transparent, high ranking political support for "sustainable development and
globalization" which will result in more democracy and broader participation in
political processes, more power to shape policies in addition to more responsibility and
accountability. Moreover, there is now a basic need to redefine the importance of
environmental issues relative to political decision-making processes in the UN. This could
only happen as part of a new political agenda, drawn up by heads of government throughout
the world.
The author is the chairman of the German
Council for Sustainable Development, an independent advisory committee to the federal
government of Germany. Text source: Deutschland E4 N1/2002, Feb/March, Embassy of Germany
in Kathmandu. |
