# If Money Talks, What Does it Say?: Corruption and Business Financing of Political Parties

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/books/if-money-talks-what-does-it-say-corruption-and-business-financing-of-political-parties-comparative-politics/
- Published: 2013-04-07T21:54:05+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Why do businesses contribute to political parties? Is money a universal language?
Do business contributions to political parties convey different messages in different
countries?**

This book answers these questions based on intensive case studies of Australia, 
Canada, and Germany, as well as data from other countries.

Business money does talk politics.  In liberal Australia and Canada, the competitive
short-term focus of firms generated substantial demand for private goods that could
help firms develop an advantage over their rivals. Thus, business financing of parties
conveyed a pragmatic message: in exchange for small but certain financial benefits,
contributing businesses expect, as a reciprocation, to receive special consideration
of their lobbying efforts.

Australia’s left-right party system created an awareness of policy risk, which motivated
ideological payments, but there was no ideological bias in business financing of
politics in centrist Canada.  In Germany’s co-ordinated economy, the most important
policies for firms tend to be the public goods defined, championed, and delivered
by their business associations. In this context, the pragmatic motivation for contributions
to political parties is weak.

The combination of consensual political institutions and constrained parties means
there is a very low risk of major policy change from election to election. So, there
is also little interest in ideological financing of political parties.

If money talks, what does it say? places business financing of political parties
in the context of debates about political corruption and offers advice on political
reform.

Iain McMenamin is Senior Lecturer at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City
University.

_Comparative Politics_ is a series for students, teachers, and researchers of political
science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books
in the series are characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological
rigour. The series is published in association with the [European Consortium for Political Research](http://www.ecprnet.eu).

Winner of the PSAI Brian Farrell book prize

The Comparative Politics series is edited by Professor David M. Farrell, School 
of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin, Kenneth Carty,
Professor of Political Science, University of British Columbia, and Professor Dirk
Berg-Schlosser, Institute of Political Science, Philipps University, Marburg.