The Legal Regulation of Political Parties in Latin America: Public Funding and Internal Democracy
The Legal Regulation of Political Parties in Latin America: Public Funding and Internal Democracy

Summary/Abstract: In this paper I present a comparative analysis of the legal regulation of political parties in Latin America. I study the legislation in force by early-2020 considering two elements: public funding and internal democracy. The results show that all countries in the region grant public funding for political parties, and that in all countries but Brazil the political parties must be internally democratic. Additionally, taking into account characteristics of the regulation not considered in previous studies, this study revealed that in most of the countries there is public funding for parties that must be allocated to political research and training, and that in most of the cases there is a procedure for party members to appeal against the party leaders’ decisions. Finally, I claim that the regulation of parties in the region could improve the parties’ performance as decision makers and straighten the political participation and representation of the citizenship.

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