Since the 1970s party finance in Sweden on all levels of the political system depends heavily on public subsidies With an estimated SEK 146 (more than $17) per voter a year the spending level is among the highest in the world of established democracies.
Sources of funds
Public subsidies are the major source of party funds in Sweden. At the national level they provide 80 to 90 per cent of the major parties' annual revenue.
Items of spending
With all Swedish parties "annual routine spending is far more important than extra campaign expenses".
Regulation of political money
As a consequence of preserving the internal autonomy of political parties as voluntary associations there was no regulation whatsoever for many years. Parties and lawmakers believed that this autonomy had to be preserved.
When
GRECO
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* Greco (surname), a list of people with this surname
* a masculine variant of Greca (given name), an Italian feminine given name
* Greco Mafia clan, one of the most influential Mafia clans in Sicily and Calabria
Wi ...
started to evaluate "Transparency of Party Funding" in
Council of Europ
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller ...
e member states the organization recommended to require political parties "to keep proper books and accounts ... to ensure that income, expenditure, assets and debts are accounted for in a comprehensive manner following a coherent format", to consolidate such accounts to include local branches and provide for easy access of the general public to the annual accounts of political parties. The Swedish authorities replied "that they did not have any reason to believe that the longstanding self-regulation" needs to be amended. However, by the end of 2012, the Swedish government had "decided to initiate a legislative process with the purpose of ... making information regarding the funding of political parties more accessible. ... draft legislation would be submitted to Parliament in autumn 2013."
[Third Evaluation Round, Second Interim Compliance Report on Sweden, Greco RC-III (2012) 22E, p. 3]
References
Bibliography
* Gullan M. Gidlund, ''Partistöd'', Umea: CWK Gleerup, 1983.
* Gullan Gidlund,'Public Investments in Swedish Democracy'. In: Matti Wiberg (ed.): ''The Public Purse and Political Parties. Public Financing of Political Parties in Nordic Countries''. Jyväskykä; Gummerus, 1991, pp. 13-54.
* Klee-Kruse, Gudrun: Financing Parties and Elections in Small European Democracies. Austria and Sweden'. In: Gunlicks, Arthur B. (ed.); ''Campaign and Party Finance in North America and Western Europe'', Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1993, pp. 178-200.
* Gullan Gidlund, 'Regulation of Party Finance in Sweden'. In: Herbert E. Alexander and Rei Shiratori (eds.): ''Comparative Political Finance Among the Democracies'', Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1994, pp. 105-114.
* Gullan Gidlund and Ruud Koole, 'Political Finance in the North of Europe (The Netherlands and Sweden)'. In: Karl-Heinz Nassmacher (ed.), ''Foundations for Democracy'', Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag, 2001, pp. 112-130.
External links
Parties and Candidates2003 Political Party Finance Database – International IDEA, Strömsborg, Sweden
2012 Political Party Finance Database – International IDEA, Strömsborg, Sweden
* http://www.idea.int/publications/funding-of-political-parties-and-election-campaigns/upload/foppec_p7.pdf
{{Political finance
Politics of Sweden
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...