campaign finance laws in other countries

Pepe Silvia

given the supreme court's recent decision that it violated corporations freedom of speech to say they can't contribute to political campaigns and seeing at&t is throwing a $1,000 plate dinner fundraiser for sen vitter i was wondering what other countries are like

OutOfBreath

We have party politics in Norway, not individual. Meaning campaigning and such is mostly for parties and party platforms. Most of the funding of the parties comes from the state directly, portioned after size and such, and member fees I suppose. And of course donations make up some of it, but it doesnt seem that it's that essential and certainly not as massive as in the US.

To the extent it is an issue in Norwegian politics, it is over the fact that the major labour union still supports the Labour party financially, while the large employer organization no longer explicitly support the conservatives. (This was a staple of the norwegian political system for decades, and still applies to wage setting. Meaning we dont have actual minimum wages by law, but tariffs are negotitated between the major organizations on both sides which then are applied throughout) Which encourages pot shots from conservatives at Labour for the too strong ties between the two in their view. I tend to stick with the other side, that the labour movement and labour party have always been two sides of the same coin. The labour unions made the labour party after all.

Anyways, it's not high on the agenda in Norway, really.

Peace
Dan

Kel Varnsen

In Canada each party gets a certain amount of dollars based on how many votes they got in the most previous election. On top of that individuals can donate up to $1,100 per year to any given federal party and another $1,100 to the federal candidate in their riding. Corporations and groups such as unions are not allowed to donate to parties.