The Financing of Politics: Latin American and European Perspectives (review)

"Political financing is not only a suitable topic for political science but also a necessary one," writes Michael Pinto-Duschinsky in his chapter in this volume. The book makes a strong case for this claim, and for the utility of cross-regional, comparative studies of the type Pinto-Duschinsky goes on to recommend. The volume is a welcome, if slightly tardy, outcome of a 1996 conference co-organized by the University of London's Institute of Latin American Studies and the Instituto Universitario José Ortega y Gasset in Madrid.

The editors have tapped international experts in the emerging field of political finance to produce an eclectic collection of thematic chapters, updated case studies, and comparative analyses. Editor Posada-Carbó draws the chapters together through an introduction that identifies the gaping holes in current understanding of political finance; indeed, even of basic questions concerning the amount of spending on campaigns, the categories of expenditure, and whether or not public funding strengthens parties or reduces corruption. Reflecting the paucity of research in this field, the volume lacks a guiding theoretical line of inquiry. The case studies nevertheless are often strong, detailed, and well-supported histories that sometimes generate or test rough hypotheses.

Spain dominates the case set. It is treated as a stand-alone chapter by Pilar del Castillo, as one of three cases compared by Véronique Pujas and Martin Rhodes (the others are Italy and France), and as the main point of reference in a chapter by Emilio Lamo de Espinosa. The only northern European case is Britain, analyzed by Justin Fisher. The Latin American cases are skewed toward countries that have substantial experience with democracy, including chapters on Venezuela by Diego Bautista Urbaneja and Angel Eduardo Alvarez, Colombia by Fernando Cepeda Ulloa, Chile by Manuel Antonio Garretón, and Uruguay by Kevin Casas-Zamora. Absent are those countries democratizing for the first time in the "third wave" and the regional giants Mexico and Brazil, which have singular political finance systems marked by majority public finance (Mexico) and multilevel disclosure (Brazil). The case bias could produce unwarranted generalizations.

Four questions with potential for theory building may be teased out of the text. What impact does neoliberalism have on political finance and its regulation? What role does political culture play in fostering or preventing corruption, and what does that imply for rational choice approaches? Do scandals impel reform? How do political and electoral systems shape party finance regimes, and how might that constrain policy prescriptions?

Laurence Whitehead's opening essay argues that the "liberalisation project" of the 1990s ignored key aspects of the liberal intellectual tradition: separation of politics and economics as distinct spheres of public activity, and traditional checks and balances on the abusive power of private wealth. Liberal defenses against "money power" include the rule of law, the competitive nature of the marketplace, and the citizenry who monitor the behavior of their politicians and hold them accountable at the ballot box. Whitehead wonders how such secular defenses can operate in "a climate of globally deregulated market competition and media-dominated struggles for electoral advantage," especially when there is ample evidence that "politicians, courts, parliaments, voters and media authorities can in some circumstances all be induced to violate fundamental principles that were supposed to shelter democratic society from the abuse of financial power for political advantage." He cautions against the liberal illusion that money is politically neutral and warns that an individualist framework that reduces personal interaction to fit "principal-agent" theory is inadequate for understanding social interactions and systemic issues such as political corruption.

Whitehead's opening critique of neoliberalism is echoed throughout the volume. Pujas and Rhodes assert that in southern Europe, "liberalization of financial markets has provided new opportunities for concealing the illicit use of funds" and concur with Lamo de Espinosa that "the neoliberal devaluation of the state and public services, and the traditional values underpinning them, have...