Political Party Finance Reform
Dr Fernando Casal Bertoa is Associate Professor in Comparative Politics. His award-winning research examines the impact of public party funding regulations on the way party politics develops in post-communist (Eastern European and post-Soviet) countries.
His academic research published in internationally top-ranking journals such as Sociological Methods and Research, Party Politics, Democratization, Policy Studies and East European Politics, and his policy reports for the Office for Democratic institutional and Human Rights (ODIHR), The Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), International IDEA and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) demonstrate how public funding of political parties contributes to the stabilisation of post-communist party systems, by making: (1) Party relations and government coalitions more predictable and durable, (2) Political party organizations stronger and more institutionalized, (3) Anti-political-establishment parties (e.g. populist, radical) less successful. In particular, his research shows that making state financial aid as accessible as possible (e.g. also to parties outside parliament) helps parties to survive in the long-run and, eventually, (re-)gain parliamentary representation.
Dr Casal Bertoa’s research on the regulation of public funding of parties has had several significant impacts. First, it has shaped the contents of the new 2020 Guidelines on Political Party Regulation elaborated by the Venice Commission (VC) and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). Second, his research has influenced changes of the new Armenian Party Law in two aspects: (1) An (almost 4 times) increase in the level of public funding, and (2) the reduction of the pay-out threshold from 3 to 2 percent. Third, his contributions to ODIHR’s Missions and Legal Opinions as member of ODIHR’s “Core Group of Political Party Experts” have influenced both constitutional (postponing the entering into force of Art. 19) and legislative (extension of state subsidies to non-parliamentary parties) reforms in Mongolia, indicating a growing reach of significant impacts. Dr Casal Bertoa’s research continues to influence legislative reform in Montenegro, Moldova and Poland.