Money plays a big role in politics, but the rules that govern it vary widely. Fortunately for researchers, International IDEA recently updated their Political Finance Dataset, with some help from REPRESENT. Fernando Casal Bértoa played a key role in updating the data on Asia.
The updated database now includes 74 political finance questions for 180 countries. It provides insight into global regulatory trends but reveals that shortcomings still exist in many countries. Yukihiko Hamada, a Senior Programme Officer in International IDEA’s Political Participation and Representation Programme discusses some of their key findings here.
Photo credit: Money by 401kcalculator.org via Flickr. Original here. Used under creative commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).