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About the Project

Background

The Regulation of Political Finance indicator is a large-N dataset which compares regulatory approaches to political finance. Incorporating information on party and candidate regulations in a 180-nation sample, the RoPFI provides a set of novel indicators and paints a truly global picture of political finance.

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An overview of the RoPFI and its methodology are presented here. Detailed information is available in the open access Electoral Studies article which introduced the RoPFI. Click here for further information.

Methodology

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  • Multiple Correspondence Analysis is applied to the data and produces a scale on which to rank nations from least to most regulated in the area of political finance

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  • Model Based Clustering is used to identify and define three types of political finance system

Definitions of System Types

  • Unregulated: No substantive regulation of political finance. Where controls exist, they rarely extend beyond a ban on vote buying or a rudimentary form of indirect public funding

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  • Partially Regulated: Countries utilize some controls on political finance, through various combinations of restrictions on private income and spending, requirements for disclosure, and public funding

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  • Strongly Regulated: Countries utilize extensive controls in most, and sometimes all, areas of political finance, including controls on private income and spending, requirements for disclosure, and public funding

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Elements of the RoPFI

  • A continuous variable which ranks nations from most regulated to least regulated

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  • A three level categorical variable to classify political finance systems as Unregulated, Partially Regulated, or Strongly Regulated

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  • A statistical measurement of the uncertainty of the nation's RoPFI classification (0 = high certainty, 1 = low certainty)

Funding Information

While no direct funding was received for this project, it was possible through indirect funding from the following organizations:

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  • The Sir Richard Stapley Trust

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  • The Sidney Perry Foundation

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  • The Kentish Foundation

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  • The Gilchrist Trust

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  • The S C Witting Trust

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  • The Universitas 21 Network

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Thanks go out to these organizations for their assistance

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