There is widespread agreement in the literature that, despite the financing of politics having existed for decades, the topic remains a complex research subject. Scholarly attention has mainly focused on how political contestants are financed, and the field is relatively new. This paper looks at political funding regimes, which refers to funding types and the […]
This article examines the nexus between democracy, elections, and political funding. A conceptual and normative analysis is conducted to explore these connections and their implications. The results of the analysis are integrated into a matrix, which depicts relationships among variables related to political systems, electoral systems, and types of political funding. A second layer is added to the matrix to include additional variables, such as political parties’ ability to generate revenue, society’s ability to fund political and electoral activity, the state’s role in public funding, and the geographical distribution of voters. The discussion that follows the analysis illustrates how the matrix can be used in various contexts. It can assist in determining the nature of funding required for specific elections and what would be feasible and politically acceptable. The matrix focuses on predominantly conceptual and normative outcomes but offers opportunities for empirical testing through comparative studies or case studies.
The implementation of the Political Funding Act No. 6 of 2018 marked a turning point in South Africa’s democratic consolidation. The Act introduced a system for regulating both public and private funding of political players in a more transparent and accountable manner. Since the Act came into effect in April 2021, the Electoral Commission of […]
This article draws on complexity theory and political will analysis to examine business support for political parties in South Africa between 2021 and 2023. Using a systems dynamics approach adapted to qualitative documentary research, the study analyses budget documents, regulatory texts, disclosure reports, parliamentary records, and media reports. The aim is to establish how corporate political finance operates as a complex adaptive system, one that is characterised by emergent patterns, non-linear responses, and evolutionary dynamics. The analysis employs complexity concepts and political will indicators to identify three system attractors, namely, compliant minimalism, creative circumvention, and defiant opacity. These factors govern corporate political behaviour. The findings also indicate feedback loops between regulatory frameworks and adaptive corporate responses, including a diminishing oversight capacity loop driven by declining Independent Electoral Commission resources. Overall, the study shows how minor regulatory changes can trigger cascading effects, and how weak political will effectively enables phase transitions toward opacity. The documentary analysis methodology demonstrates that complexity theory and political will frameworks can be applied to archival materials to map human agency and the overall system’s dynamics.
