International IDEA's Work - Political Participation
Functioning and Funding of Political Parties

This project addresses sensitive, but important issues of how political parties function between elections and during election campaigns. International IDEA is currently putting together a Handbook on Funding of Parties and Election Campaigns, which is due for publication and launching during early 2003. The Handbook aims to serve as a practical, user-friendly tool to practitioners, legislators, donors and local policy-makers. An overview of the handbook was announced at the conference Network Democracy - Enhancing the Role of Political Parties 24-25 April 2001 in the Hague, 24-25 April 2001 in The Hague, the Netherlands, co-organized by International IDEA and the newly-founded Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (IMD). This work has been enhanced and the theme further highlighted during the year by our involvement in a series of workshops and seminars in Mexico, Croatia, Bosnia and India. Over the next few months, intensive work will focus on the publication of the Handbook, as well as the production and launch of a political parties project website (within the overall International IDEA website), which will serve as a platform for the dissemination of the Handbook.

In November 2001, International IDEA and the Commonwealth Secretariat convened a workshop titled 'Money and Democratic Politics' in New Delhi, India. The workshop was held in co-operation with the Election Commission of India and the Confederation of Indian Industries.

The report of the conference Towards sustainable democratic institutions in Southern Africa that was held in May 2000 in Botswana is now available.

For more information contact:

Maja Tjernström
m.tjernstrom@idea.int

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