A Study on the Institutionalization of Campaign Finance Reforms as a Means to Strengthen the Political Party System

Abstract

This thesis entitled “A Study on the Institutionalization of Campaign Finance Reforms as a Means to Strengthen the Political Party System” took its roots in the summer of 2002 during the researcher's practicum in the Senate, where in she attended a series of committee hearings conducted by the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, Revision of Codes and Laws on Senate Bill No. 1730 or “Presidential Election Campaign Fund Act”, Senate Bill No. 2041 or “Political Party Act of 2002", and Senate Bill No. 2042 of "Campaign Finance Reform Law of 2002". The country's weak political party system has drawn a lingering bout of concern in both the political and academic spheres. Basically, there is a public perception that the political party system in the country is restricted to personalities rather than issues and political programs. Furthermore, the shift in the political loyalty and affiliation of turncoats only adds to the build-up of this already distressing perception. Their choice of party affiliation is not based on party ideology but on other factors such as availability of funds and the party's political networking; hence, party loyalty is not as strong as it should be. Another problem is the price tag of running in any national election in the Philippines, which has inflated enormously over the past years. To manage and finance the election of candidates to public offices, contributions from various sources are brought into play. In this respect, the affluent politicians and those already in office almost always have the upper hand over the new set of promising political leaders. In response to these problems, there have been many attempts to improve the direction of our political parties in the past so as to turn away from the notion of traditional politics, but sadly they have not been successful because political parties in our country are not institutionalized. So it is imperative that political party system should be strengthened if we want to develop and achieve legitimate political development. The objectives of the researcher in carrying out this study were to: 1. Examine the bills proposed by Sen. Edgardo Angara and Sen. Francis Pangilinan regarding the institutionalization of campaign finance reforms 2. Find out if the institutionalization of campaign finance reforms will strengthen the political party system 3. Gather sufficient data which will support the hypothesis that the institutionalization of campaign finance reforms will strengthen the political party system For the theoretical framework, the researcher made use of theories formulated by David Easton and Samuel Huntington. To explain the workings of the political party system, the researcher deemed it necessary to use David Easton's Systems Analysis using the following variables: INPUT: Senate Bill Nos. 1730, 2041 and 2042 CONVERSION MECHANISM: enactment of the bill into a law= institutionalization of political parties OUTPUT: system of state subsidy=Party Development Fund OUTCOME: strengthening of the political party system FEEDBACK: participation of the electorate Aside from Easton's Systems Analysis, Samuel Huntington's theories on political parties were also used. In his book, Political Order in Changing Societies, he mentioned that the stability of a modernizing political system depends on the strength of its political parties. A party, in turn, is strong to the extent that it has institutionalized mass support. Its strength reflects the scope of that support and the level of institutionalization. A strong party system thus provides the institutionalized organizations and procedures for the assimilation of new groups into the system. The development of such party institution, according to him, is the prerequisite for political stability in modernizing countries. In carrying out the study, the researcher made use of descriptive statistics, and used qualitative data gathering. Materials needed in the study were collected mainly from the Intemet, from the College of Arts and Sciences library, and from the research facilities in the Senate. For primary data gathering, questionnaires were given out to the offices of Senator Edgardo Angara and Senator Francisco Pangilinan. For the secondary data gathering, copies of the Senate Bill Nos. 1730, 2041 and 2042 were procured from the Bills and Index section of the Senate, and transcript of the committee hearings on the said bills were provided by the archivist in the Senate records and Archives Division. For literatures related to the study, data were obtained from books and the Intemet. Below is the list of groups that were represented by different resource persons in the committee hearings, conducted by the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, Revision of Codes and Laws on May 7, 14 and 21 last year. 7 May 2002 14 May 2002 21 May 2002 1. Laban ng Demokratikong 1. UP College of Law 1. COMELEC Pilipino 2. Institute for Political 2. Development 2. Commission on Elections and Electoral Academy of the 3. Bureau of Internal Revenue Reform Philippines 4. Liberal Party 3. Development 3. Department of 5. LAKAS-NUCD-UNDP Academy of the Finance 6. National People's Coalition Philippines 7. Department of Budget and Management The resource persons were in consensus that there really is a need to reform the political party system in the country. The only differing views that can be detected from their accounts are the ways on how to put it into action. They had suggested several ways to institute reforms in our party system: (1) get people to accept political parties as public institutions (2) the government should be able to develop more innovative ways of sourcing funds outside of the present revenue program of the government (3) penalize turncoats (4) encourage the growth of small parties (5) in granting subsidies, it may be possible to consider the idea of “handicapping”, or giving less to the ruling party and giving a little more to the opposition or to the minority party (6) the creation of Party Development Fund should go more not directly to the campaign or the election proper, but more on the assessment of the needs of their constituents through party program design and strategy formulation, recruitment and training of party leaders and followers, constituency education of party program, advocacy activities, party network and alliance-building, and mobilization of participatory community action by the party. The amount of funds given for campaign finance should take into consideration not only the proportion of votes received by a political party during the previous election but also the extent of their party-building activities between elections, and lastly, (7) incentives for mass membership in political parties should be given emphasis because this will lead to a greater political participation of the electorate To summarize, the Philippines has a weak political party system, as illustrated by problems on the areas of party ideology, party loyalty, mass membership and political participation of the electorate, and the dominance of the elite in the political arena due to the high costs of campaign. One way to solve this pitiful condition is through the institutionalization of campaign finance reforms, which would instigate the strengthening of our political party system for the reason that it will act in response to the rising cost of campaigns and concerns about the role of money in politics. It will also help reduce the inequities and the resources available to candidates. Furthermore, it will increase competitiveness of campaigns, and it will reduce influential control of vested interests as well. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher arrived at the conclusion that the enactment of Senate Bill Nos. 1730, 2041 and 2042 will institutionalize political parties, which means that political parties will be given recognition by the state. And if this happens, political parties will be subsidized, thus, it will bring about reforms in the party system, specifically on campaign finance. This would in tum strengthen the political party system.