A party political foundation (german: Parteinahe Stiftung or ''Parteistiftung'') in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

is a state-subsidised political foundation that's affiliated to a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

. There are seven foundations at the federal level: one for each party represented in the federal parliament (''

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representat ...

''). The major characteristics of all such organizations is that they do party related work like general information about the ideological cause, training of volunteers, publication of pamphlets and international aid for democracy building (in co-operation with partners around the world). The party political foundations receive 95% of their funding from government grants, thus blurring the definition of '

non-governmental organisation A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

'. Most do not even have the legal status of 'foundation'. Similar institutions have also been organized in the Netherlands, Austria, France and Greece. In the U.K. and the U.S. the general setup differs because institutions like the

Westminster Foundation for Democracy The Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) is a United Kingdom non-departmental public body set up to support democratic institutions overseas. It was established on 26 February 1992 and registered as a company limited by guarantee in the ...

, the

National Democratic Institute The National Democratic Institute (NDI), or National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, is a non-profit American NGO that works with partners in developing countries to increase the effectiveness of democratic institutions. The NDI's ...

(NDI) or the

International Republican Institute The International Republican Institute (IRI) is an American nonprofit organization. Most of its board is drawn from the Republican Party. It is committed to advancing freedom and democracy worldwide by helping political parties to become more issu ...

(IRI) are limited to responsibilities in international aid. The same applies for the

Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD; Dutch: ''Nederlands Instituut voor Meerpartijendemocratie'') works to promote peaceful, just and inclusive politics worldwide. NIMD's approach is characterized by dialogue, which it facili ...

(NIMD).

List of foundations

Literature

* Pinto-Duschinsky, Michael, The Party Foundations and Political Finance in Germany. In: Seidle, Leslie F. (ed.), ''Comparative Issues in Party and Election Finance''. Toronto, ON: Dundurn Press, 1991, pp. 179–250. * Lucardie, Paul/ Voerman, Gerrit, 'Party Foundations in the Netherlands', in: Nassmacher, Karl-Heinz (ed.), ''Foundations for Democracy. Approaches to Comparative Political Finance'', Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2001, pp. 321–337.

Footnotes

{{Authority control Political parties in Germany Political funding

List of foundations

Literature

See also

Footnotes