After the abolition of direct public funding of politics in 2013, Italy intended to increase private donations. However, the numbers tell a different story: little funding comes from “big donors”, while a lot comes from elected representatives. Meanwhile, the absence of direct public funding in Italy remains a European anomaly.
We publish the detailed report of the speakers' interventions at the policy workshop "Doing politics without public funds. New vulnerabilities and transparency challenges", which took place on November 20th, 2019 in Rome, as part of the ESVEI project promoted by OBCT/ CCI
On November 20th, 2019 we gathered in Rome experts, academics and journalists to draw some conclusions on the situations of the funding of politics in Italy after the law that abolished direct public funding to political parties, making them more dependant on private entities and potentially more vulnerable to external influences.
Politics is not only made in parties, but also in think tanks: research centres, places of relationships and safes. In Italy the transparency law has equated them with parties, but the issue is complex
A picture of the transformations of funding to Italian politics, from the introduction of direct public funding to political parties in 1974 to its abolition and the regulation of transparency in recent years
In Italy the abolition of direct public funding to parties gave a greater role to private financing, increasing the risk of undue influence on the democratic process. A dossier as a part of the ESVEI project
In Italy, the abolition of public funding for politics has made political actors more dependent on private subjects and potentially more vulnerable to interference. It is therefore urgent to adjust the legislative framework and introduce measures that reduce these vulnerabilities and ensure actual transparency. Some reflections and concrete proposals
The current rules to make political funding more transparent do not work. Unusable data and inaccessible information make transparency a bluff. From OpenPolis, a proposal on how to solve the problem
