Funding of political parties and election campaigns

Democracies cannot function without political parties. Parties are expected to reflect the concerns of citizens, aggregate and mediate diverse interests, projects a vision of society and develop policy options accordingly. They are supposed to inspire and attract supporters to their cause, their membership being of key importance in their claim to represent citizens. Parties may well not live up to expectations regarding their services to citizens or quality of leadership. They nevertheless continue to be entrusted with what is perhaps the most strategic responsibility of modern democracy – to prepare and select candidates for parliamentary and presidential elections and then to support them into positions of leadership and government.