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OAS in Mexico Presents Report: "Politics, Money and Power: A Dilemma for Democracy"

The Organization of American States (OAS) today presented in Mexico City the report titled, "Politics, Money and Power: a Dilemma for Democracy," which analyzes the impact of citizens' demands and the influence of money in politics; the effectiveness of regulations on political finance and the consequences of not having enough rules on this matter; equal electoral opportunities; democracy and media pluralism; the impact of crime-related money and the discrimination of women in political financing.

The document, presented in the framework of the Second Latin American Forum of Democracy co-organized by the OAS from December 6 to 8 in Mexico City, covers the complex relationship between politics and money in a democratic system, and states that this link can generate a series of questions related to the inappropriate use of political funding, the loss of confidence in the system, and the legitimacy of access to government. It also states that the inappropriate relationship between democracy and money "has the potential to become the first piece in a domino effect that can impact an entire political system."

In presenting the document, the Special Adviser to the Secretary General and the study's Director, Dante Caputo, stressed its importance, affirming that money, as a method of imposition, is confronted with the logic of democracy as it "alters, affects, distorts or skews democracy from its very foundation: the electoral process." He noted the risks in which democracy incurs when money and power superimpose over the interests and the social, economic and political rights of the majority; a dynamic that occasionally gives rise to a crisis of democratic legitimacy. Finally, he mentioned that the challenge of the relationship between money and politics is not unique to Latin America, but that the characteristics of the region make this a higher risk.

"Everywhere money is influential in politics. But in our land more than anywhere else, money is concentrated in few hands. Two are the main reasons: on the one hand, our region has the most unequal wealth and income distribution in the world, and on the other, in many of our presidential systems the power of decision-making, especially with regard to public resources, is concentrated in the executive branch,¨ Caputo said.

In the book's introduction, the OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, said that the focus of the study "exceeds the issue of the governance and goes further into the future, on how to secure democracy for generations. This involves identifying and attacking the hazards that can weaken our democracy." "Both our action and that of the political actors must be nurtured by the debate on issues such as the ones presented in this report. Otherwise, they would each sail without radar," he said.

The paper discusses the risk that democracies face if they serve only those who concentrate money and not the general interest, something that is considered a threat to the ongoing construction of legitimacy. "When in a democratic system a government loses legitimacy, sooner or later it will lose its authority and weaken its ability to act and exercise power under the democratic rule of law," says the report that affirms that money, power and democracy "form a triangle that may undermine the belief of the members of a society that democracy is the best way to improve their welfare."

In terms of recommendations, the report suggest the creation of broader national regulations concerning the use of funding, the establishment of committees of political parties and their registration, the disclosure of political parties and campaigns donors and the creation of a fair and transparent competition in the campaigns. It also recommends to facilitate and promote women's access to financing for political activity, restricting the use of public resources in election campaigns, to promote accountability and apply sanctions systems that promote accountability in the use of funding, to reduce political independence of the money, to regulate the use of advertising, promote a pluralistic system that seeks a balance in relationship between the state and the media, market and society, and the creation of national electoral institutions.

The report was produced by an OAS team lead by Dante Caputo, with support from the Spanish International Cooperation Agency (AECI), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain (MAEC), the Federal Electoral Institute of Mexico (IFE) and IDEA International.

The full report is available in Spanish here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-996/11