Búsqueda

Half of democratic governments around the world are in decline while authoritarian regimes are deepening their repression.

Esta nota de prensa está disponible en español.

Transparency in politics—in particular with regard to political finance—lies at the core of every democracy. The availability of accessible, detailed information about the funding of political parties and candidates enables scrutiny by civil society organizations and the wider public, and ensures that all political actors can be held accountable.

Transparency of politics, particularly political finance, is a cornerstone of every democratic system.

Excellencies,

Transforming Constitution-building

Russia’s war of choice has wrought enormous infrastructural and human damage across Ukraine. The international community broadly accepts the necessity of providing significant financial and technical assistance for reconstruction in Ukraine, but equally vital is the provision of concomitant support for Ukraine’s work to preserve and reconstruct its democracy and democratic institutions on its own terms.

When looking at data on democratic performance over time, one might see the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) as the least democratic in the world. Considering the 20 countries it is composed of, 7 of them have never experienced a change in regime type and can therefore be considered as the most enduring authoritarian regimes on a global scale.   

“The alternative to democratic recession is democratic resilience”: Former Prime Minister of Sudan Abdalla Hamdok calls for strengthening democratic resilience as democracy remains a most cherished aspiration of people all over the world at the Brussels Conference. 

International IDEA deplores the illegal and illegitimate holding of referendums in Ukraine's occupied territories on joining the Russian Federation. Staged to imitate the pursuit of self-determination of people, they are an egregious abuse of this direct democracy tool by a hostile occupying power.  

International IDEA hosted a panel discussion on the state of Sweden’s democracy on 7 September 2022, ahead of the International Day of Democracy and Sweden’s general elections on 11 September 2022. The panellists were Anders L.

The European Union and its Member States are the biggest providers of democracy support worldwide. Advancing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms is one of the objectives of the EU´s external action, as set out in Article 21 of the Treaty on the European Union.

The recent revelations that some political parties in Sweden have tried to circumvent donation rule

“Authoritarianism is on the rise, but resilience and democratic pushbacks are alive as well”. This headline properly captures the democratic trends in the Asia and Pacific region, characterised by extraordinary diversity in terms of country size, traditions, development but also of regime types and performances. These range from some of the most enduring autocratic regimes to some of the best performing democracies in the world.

When political leaders return from their unusually hot summer holidays, they will soon face the spectre of an exceptionally cold winter.

While the use of Internet and social media has become an integral part of the communications strategies of many political parties and candidates across the globe, many countries still struggle to improve financial transparency behind such online campaigning. Latvia is one of the few countries that has, over time, passed laws that define and addressed online campaign finance.

Lobbying  and the giving of donations to political parties are viewed as integral to a democratic process, providing alternative means of political participation for many corporate actors, interest groups, among others (International IDEA 2020, 2022).

While the the United Kingdom is often considered to have one of the most transparent political finance systems, it is still unclear how more than 1 in every GBP 10 was spent at the last UK general election.

International IDEA presented its latest data on gender quotas at the Albania 2022 International Forum for Gender Equality “Equality and Me”, which focused on developing a stronger commitment for gender equality. The Forum held on 27 May provided a platform for key national actors/stakeholders to discuss national collective responsibility and explore pathways towards gender equality and inclusiveness in decision-making processes in Albania.