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Category Archives: party funding

D’Alema-TV

Once upon a time, there were party newspapers: funded by the parties, staffed by the parties, sold to party sympathizers. Or, there were partisan rags, which even if they didn’t have a party connection, seemed as if they did.
According to a number of (predominantly-American) social scientists, partynewspapers declined as the capital costs of launching a […]

Posted 01 August 2008 † Chris § massimo d'alema § television § italy ‡ Comments (3)

The costs of campaign

Excellent article from the Sole 24 Ore on the parties’ campaign expenditure.

Posted 21 March 2008 † Chris § election § italy ‡ Comments (0)

Grillo gets it right

I don’t normally agree with comic-turned-political-agent-provocateur Beppe Grillo, but I have to say that the three referendum proposals he’s announced under the banner “Libera informazione in libero stato” (Free information in a free country) are spot on. The proposals are to:

abolish the Ordine dei Giornalisti, a Fascist-era institution which journalists must be enrolled in;
abolish subsidies […]

Posted 14 March 2008 † Chris § grillo § newspapers § italy § gasparri ‡ Comments (1)

Costs of Italian democracy

From Today’s Repubblica (Vladimiro Polchi, “I costi dello stato”, p. 9):
“How much does a parliamentarian earn? The calculation is not easy given the number of different headings to add. Senators and deputie take home euro 14,000 per month net of taxes. To the exemption of 5,486 euros (reduced by 10% with the 2006 budget) one […]

Posted 14 April 2007 † Chris § italy ‡ Comments (0)

State funding of Italian parties

Recently, I’ve been looking at the system of state funding of Italian political parties. I’m interested in the subject because of the incentives it may create to form new parliamentary groups (since they qualify for funding), and the way funding systems interact with the new electoral system.
The history of state funding is pretty shabby. In […]

Posted 07 February 2007 † Chris § funding § italy § party systems ‡ Comments (1)