Comparing campaign and party finance

• Most obvious similarity: elections cost money everywhere
• An assumption that to stand a chance of victory, a party/candidate needs to match (if not exceed) spending of its opponents
  • Especially in swing states
• Where there is money raised there is influence gained
• Party Funding in the UK

Structural

Campaign expenditure caps

• 2024 UK: national parties limited to ~£54k per candidate standing

• caps legally allowed total to just over £34m

• Clear limits on campaign spending by individual candidates leading to a general election

• Names of all donors giving over £10k must be made public

• Electoral Commission issues fines for breaches

  • Feb 2020, Plaid Cymru fined over £29k for breaching transparency rules

• US: party finance rules much more complex

  • Legislation such as Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act 2002 watered down by court rulings such as Citizens United and SpeechNow

• Rules that limit direct donations to parties and candidates (hard money)

• Few effective rules to restrict indrect or independent expenditure (soft money)

  • PACs + super PACs

• No limit on expenditure from candidate’s personal wealth (self-funding)

• Differences reflect the structural notions of sovereignty

  • any changes to US electoral law must be constitutinoal
  • any changes to UK electoral law can be passed by statute law (Parliamentary sovereignty)

State funding of campaigns

• UK: Far more is done by the government neutrally
  • voter registration undertaken centrally by government
• US: lots of energy and cash spent on registration drives
  • especially Dem seeking to ensure that minority groups are registered
• Candidates in UK elections legally entitled to free postage of one piece of election literature

Pressure groups

• PGs much more tightly regulated by the Charity Commission in their poltiical activities, especially during election times
  • Charity Commission: “A charity cannot have a political purpose. Nor can a charity undertake political activity that is not relevant to, and dos not have a reasonable likelihood of, supporting the charity’s charitable purposes.”
  • UK charities cannot openly support or donate to parties/candidates
• US: PGs can donate, endorse, campaign for candidates using PACs

Legal framework

• UK: Communications Act 2003 - television airtime cannot be purchased for political ads
  • major parties alloacted free slots for party election broadcasts
• US: candidates, parties, Super PACs spent over $12.3b on ads during 2024 election