Campaign Finance

Elected officials routinely do not reflect the racial diversity of the citizenry. In Latin America, these descriptive gaps are particularly pronounced. A growing number of studies investigate the causes of racial disparities in representation, however, extant research largely focuses on national assemblies. In this paper, I extend this well-trod line of research to an understudied context, local elections. Using a dataset that covers mayoral elections in Brazil, I demonstrate that multiple factors hinder Afro-Brazilians, who comprise a majority of the Brazilian population, from winning public office. I show that barriers to candidate entry, resource disparities between white and Afro-Brazilian candidates, and race-based preferences among voters contribute to racial inequality in political representation. These results indicate that members of marginalized racial groups often must overcome multiple barriers to achieve electoral success.

Campania Politică fără Bariere a avut o contribuție importantă la modificarea legilor electorale, în 2015. Utilizând mijloacele dialogului structurat cu decidenții de la nivelul Parlamentului și Președinției, organizațiile neguvernamentale au obținut legiferarea unor reforme semnificative. Cea mai importantă este, neîndoielnic, posibilitatea înființării partidelor politice cu numai 3 membri, pe baza dreptului de liberă asociere, consfințit prin art. 40 din Constituție. Dar nu toate aspirațiile Campaniei Politică fără Bariere au fost legiferate într-un mod satisfăcător. Mai ales pentru partidele nou-înființate, acest Ghid oferă o serie de recomandări menite să diminueze riscurile cu care acestea se pot confrunta în timpul anului electoral 2016, ca efect al reglementărilor adoptate în cursul anului 2015.

In March 2014 a corruption scandal emerged in Brazil with unprecedented political and judicial repercussions. Dubbed the 'Car Wash' (Lava Jato in Portuguese), the investigation has uncovered large-scale bribery, kickbacks, and money laundering involving the state-run oil company Petrobras. This paper looks in depth at the mechanics involved in the corruption flows, presenting a theoretical model to discuss the links between campaign finance, state capture, political exploitation, and overcharged public contracts channelled back to campaigns, politicians, parties and senior bureaucrats. Although dozens of high profile politicians and businessmen have now been jailed, one of the major repercussions of this investigation is the Brazilian Supreme Court decision to ban corporate donations to electoral campaigns. Employing what the Car Wash has told us about how corporate corruption works in Brazil, the final part of this paper turns to considering how the sudden absence of corporate electoral donations is likely to play out. Using analytical narrative based on secondary data analysis, such as campaign finance records, government payments orders, and police and prosecutors' reports, this paper also questions whether this decision has an impact on corruption. It remains unclear whether, and if so how, the banning of corporate donations will work as an effective deterrent of campaign finance fraud. 1. Petrobras: from a darling exception to another politically captured SOE Petrobras, the Brazilian state-controlled oil company, was once defined as 'the most autonomous and corporately coherent organisation within the state enterprise system' (Evans 1992:172). Indeed, the Brazilian state-giant corporation used to be referred to as a 'darling exception' (Almeida and Zagaris 2015:87) when its performance was compared to the common deficiencies of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which are often politically captured in order to maximize particularistic interests as well as dragged into distrust because of a lack of efficiency and profitability.

This chapter focuses on the development of political communication and campaigning in Estonia. It starts with a brief overview of the basic characteristics of the political and party system. Then, it introduces the main laws and rules the campaigners must comply with. After that, the authors describe the evolution of communication tactics and techniques used by parties and candidates to persuade voters to vote for them over the last three decades. At the end of the chapter, the authors discuss the most recent campaigning trends in Estonia.

Wie sieht die Zukunft der politischen Kommunikation in Deutschland aus? Wird es den gläsernen Abgeordneten geben, gewinnt die Europäische Union mehr Macht, können sich die traditionellen Leitmedien behaupten? Welche Chancen haben neue Parteien? Wird der Schlüssel zu politischen Karrieren das Internet? Wer schreibt und beeinflusst unsere Gesetze im Jahr 2030? Die Delphi-Studie geht diesen und weiteren Fragen mit einem innovativen Forschungsdesign nach. Über 100 Politiker unter 45 Jahren aus Parlamenten, Ministerien und Parteizentralen haben Schlüsselthesen zur Zukunft der politischen Kommunikation und Gesetzgebung bewertet. Die Ergebnisse der Befragung haben die Politiker erneut als Experten bewertet und kommentiert. Dieser Band stellt die Ergebnisse systematisch dar und diskutiert die Szenarien einer Politikergeneration, die in den nächsten Jahrzehnten die politische Verantwortung übernimmt.

This is the 5th edition of a draft book that traces the roots of American pursuit of "hegemony in perpetuity based on manifest destiny" back through European colonialism to Emperor Constantine's re-engineering of the loving philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth into a weapon of war. A variety of solutions designed to help create a more peaceful world are suggested.

This thesis offers an account of the justification of democracy and its proper relationship with the market. It sets out a justification of democracy that I call impartial instrumentalism. According to this account, a political system is justified by its tendency to make good decisions. However, this should be assessed in a way that is impartial between substantive conceptions of justice. In practice, impartial instrumentalism recommends those political systems that promote the knowledge and moral motivation of decision-makers. Democracy is justified as the best political system according to this standard. My account contributes to debates about epistemic democracy by integrating considerations of motivation, and by clarifying the relationship between instrumental and epistemic justifications of democracy.

The second half of the thesis evaluates the relationship between markets and democracy in light of this account. I begin by asking whether democracies should be restricted in their ability to intervene in the market. I evaluate the most plausible contemporary argument for this, that of Ilya Somin. Somin’s argument does not meet the test of impartial instrumentalism, because he underrates the need for collective decisions and is not impartial between different conceptions of morality. Next, I ask how markets can influence democracy, and how we should respond to these influences. I examine two case studies: the funding of political speech, and capital strikes (situations in which governments retreat from policies out of fear of how markets will react). In both cases, markets can impede the proper working of democracy. For the former case, I propose a policy solution. However, the latter case raises unavoidable trade-offs between democracy and the economic benefits of trade.

In this thesis, I defend a normative account of constitutional design. On the basis of this account, I argue that democracy should generally have priority over the market. 

Wahlkampfmanagement ist ein Handwerk, eine Kunst, und in den Vereinigten Staaten auch ein Beruf. In den vergangenen 30 Jahren hat sich dort die Profession der Political Consultants etabliert. Es gibt einen Berufsverband der Wahlkampfberater, einen hohen Grad der Spezialisierung, Fachzeitschriften, Studiengänge, einen berufsethischen Kanon. Professionalismus zeigt sich aber auch in den Einstellungen und Karrieren der Berater, im Marketing ihrer politischen Dienstleistung und im Vertrauensverhältnis zwischen Berater und Klienten - also den Kandidaten. Ihre angeblich unkontrollierte und manipulative Rolle bei Wahlen wird von Presse, Politikwissenschaft und sogar Politikern immer wieder angegriffen. Die Political Consultants agieren nicht nur in den Wahlkämpfen, sondern auch bei Kampagnen um Volksbegehren und im Lobbying. In jedem Fall geht es um großes Geld. Die Dissertation untersucht mit Hilfe von Konzepten aus der Professionssoziologie, wie und warum sich die Wahlkampfberater als eigener Berufsstand etablieren konnten. Die empirische Basis bilden u.a. zahlreiche Interviews und eine quantitative Erhebung unter 240 Wahlkampfberatungsfirmen im Vergleich mit Sekundäranalysen bisher unveröffentlichter Daten und Dokumente aus der Branche. Dissertation (Universität Göttingen)

A presente investigação parte de uma pergunta que é, em parte, uma
constatação: Se hoje em dia muito se fala na defesa do meio ambiente, por que as práticas são tão devastadoras?  Nossa hipótese para esta questão é a existência de grupos que exercem influência política e que assumem posicionamentos anti-ecológicos, atuando de forma a impedir os avanços na defesa do meio ambiente e no caminho para a
sustentabilidade planetária.  Consideramos estes grupos como sujeitos do fenômeno anti-ecologismo. Utilizamos como instrumentos de pesquisa: a análise documental dos pareceres dos relatores do Projeto de alteração do Código Florestal Brasileiro (PL 1876/99)  na Câmara e no Senado; recolhimento de dados sobre o financiamento das campanhas eleitorais dos parlamentares membros das  mesas diretivas das Comissões de Meio Ambiente da Câmara dos Deputados e do Senado Federal em 2010 e 2011, assim como dos relatores do Projeto de Lei que altera o Código Florestal; investigação sobre a atuação (no tocante às questões ambientais) das  empresas financiadoras das campanhas eleitorais dos parlamentares estudados; acompanhamento  dos processos de discussões, votação e aprovação na Câmara (por 410 votos a favor e 63 votos contra) do relatório do deputado Aldo Rebelo (PCdoB/SP) que altera a legislação florestal brasileira; análise  de pronunciamentos  de parlamentares envolvidos nas discussões acerca da revisão do Código Florestal em diferentes
mídias, privilegiando as mídias oficiais da Câmara e do Senado.

O financiamento de campanhas vem sofrendo mudanças no mundo
todo, não sendo o Brasil uma exceção. As novas tecnologias transformam
cotidianamente as relações sociais que logo se refletem na dinâmica
política e na própria forma de atuar da democracia. O financiamento
coletivo de campanhas, ou crowdfunding, surge nesse movimento de
modernização dos canais de participação política e vem crescendo em
diversos países. Pressionada por essa “onda” digital e também pelo atual
e muito restrito panorama do financiamento de campanhas, a Justiça
Eleitoral brasileira resiste a reconhecer esse fenômeno, mantendo a sua
posição de cautela diante de novas alternativas. Utilizando-se de uma revisão bibliográfica, este trabalho se propõe a uma análise dos prós
e dos contras de incluir o crowdfunding como opção para candidatos
financiarem suas campanhas, sem a pretensão de esgotar o tema, mas
de fomentar o debate. O exame se inicia com a conceituação do tema,
ao qual se segue a exposição de algumas experiências ocorridas em
outros países, para logo analisar diversos argumentos favoráveis ou
não a essa providência. Ao final, sugerem-se algumas ações por parte
do TSE que poderiam ao menos amenizar o difícil momento pelo qual a
democracia brasileira está passando.

This course seeks to expose students to the origins and evolution of norms of electoral integrity in a variety of contexts throughout history. Films and documentaries on the subject covering different places and periods of history complement book chapters, online TED talks/lectures, instructor lectures/notes, media reports, practitioner reports, and scholarly articles. Material from electoral assistance and monitoring organizations such as The Carter Center, the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), International IDEA, the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA), the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES), Pakistan’s Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) will also be included when possible. While focusing primarily on scholarly and theoretical approaches and empirical strategies for studying the topic, the course will also expose students to data, practical/policy knowledge, and familiarity with skills, career paths, and further training necessary to pursue a career in international or domestic work in the field of democracy and elections. If possible, the instructor will include exclusive video online interviews with election officials, politicians, and scholars.

The decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission may augur a sea-change in the law governing campaign finance regulation. This article discusses the statutory and jurisprudential context in which the SpeechNow.org challenge to federal campaign finance laws developed; presents an overview of the decision of the Court of Appeals; and notes the potential implications of the decision for the future case law addressing the intersection of campaign finance law and the First Amendment.

O presente artigo aborda a complexa relação entre dinheiro e política no País. Partindo do pressuposto de que as empresas possuem papel relevante no processo eleitoral e que representaria um grande desafio a simples proibição de doações de pessoas jurídicas, argumenta-se que a concentração de recursos por parte de poucas empresas confere uma margem estratégica de distribuição de recursos sem paralelo com outras fontes de financiamento, como os partidos e pessoa física. Este fato seria um problema para a democracia brasileira. Por fim, é discutida a maior capacidade dos partidos em atrair recursos empresariais, o que incidiria sobre a ampliação de seu papel na arena eleitoral.

Two chapters extracted from a broader PhD project on political parties and the development of campaign finance policy. In the first chapter (Chapter 10), the Wisconsin Republican Party's responses to the Watergate Scandal, changing finances and pressure for campaign finance reform in the 1970s are explored. The second chapter (Chapter 12)  delves into the Wisconsin Democratic Party's idealistic policy on campaign finance reform and its alliance with Common Cause. Contrary to expectations, the actions of party legislators, officials and activists when developing policy on political reform display a mix of complex motives, only one of which is self-interest.

Quais as características formais, metodológicas e substantivas da literatura sobre a influência do dinheiro nas eleições municipais brasileiras? O principal objetivo deste trabalho é responder essa pergunta a partir de uma revisão sistemática da produção científica sobre o assunto. Para tanto, examinamos uma seleção de 25 trabalhos acadêmicos publicados entre 2003 e 2017, de acordo com um protocolo específico de elegibilidade. Os resultados apontam que, em média, os casos analisados possuem 47 páginas e têm 3,92 anos de idade (contando da data da publicação até 2018). Ainda, os trabalhos precisam dar mais atenção ao processo de construção do conhecimento científico, tornando mais clara a pergunta de pesquisa, as hipóteses e, principalmente, os métodos utilizados. 72% analisam apenas uma disputa eleitoral e menos da metade, 44%, tentam fazer alguma relação causal entre variáveis. Com este artigo, esperamos contribuir com a acumulação do conhecimento sobre o efeito do financiamento de campanha nos resultados eleitorais no Brasil e difundir o uso de revisões sistemáticas na ciência política.

La financiación de los partidos políticos se ha convertido desde al menos los años setenta en una cuestión central en la política contemporánea. En muchos aspectos un fenómeno internacional que afecta en mayor o menor medida a todas las democracias occidentales, en España la sucesión de escándalos de corrupción relacionados con las finanzas de las grandes formaciones políticas resulta un elemento de enorme importancia para entender el devenir del sistema político. En La financiación ilegal de partidos políticos. Un análisis político-criminal, Manuel Maroto aborda esta compleja cuestión desde diversas perspectivas: tras realizar un recorrido histórico-jurídico por algunos de los distintos escándalos que en esta materia han tenido lugar desde la Transición a la democracia, el enfoque pasa a inclinarse hacia los vínculos entre los modelos de financiación que las formaciones políticas desarrollan, su modelo organizativo y las modalidades de corrupción que aparecen asociadas en esos procesos. Con esto la obra busca trascender la con frecuencia limitada perspectiva jurídico-penal dominante en materia de corrupción, identificando algunos de los problemas estructurales que afectarían al sistema español de partidos, y proponiendo algunas estrategias jurídicas y legislativas de reforma.
Factores como la inexistencia hasta la reforma penal de 2015 de un tipo penal de financiación ilegal de partidos o las graves carencias de la función fiscalizadora del Tribunal de Cuentas, entre otros, han reducido a cierta irrelevancia la capacidad de regulación estatal efectiva en la materia, un déficit que la obra sugiere afrontar con una nueva aproximación penal orientada hacia el reforzamiento de los controles internos y la puesta en valor del mandato constitucional de democracia interna

"Over the past decade, the push for electoral reform in India and the United States – the world’s two largest democracies – has been promi- nent in the politics and governance of both nations. The supreme courts in each country have played important, but distinct, roles in recent electoral reform efforts, responding to different facets and regimes of political corruption. In the 1990s, the Indian Supreme Court became increasingly assertive in requiring greater levels of dis- closure and transparency for political parties in India. In a series of decisions in 2002 and 2003, the Indian Supreme Court challenged the Central Government’s failure to promote transparency and disclosure in elections, and asserted a more active role in advancing electoral reforms by expanding the scope of the “right to information” and ordering the promulgation of disclosure requirements for legislative candidates. In contrast, the United States Supreme Court has become more assertive in challenging government reforms and asserting limits on campaign finance reform laws aimed at curbing the power and influence of corporate spending on elections over the past decade.
This Article seeks to elaborate on the divergent approaches of each high court by analyzing the evolution of free speech jurisprudence in the area of campaign finance and electoral reform. It then seeks to provide an explanatory account for the divergent approaches to electo- ral reform within each judiciary. Several key factors account for the divergent approaches of the two supreme courts: the distinct jurispru- dence of each court in the area of fundamental rights, the composition of the courts, and the nature of corruption in each system. This Article concludes by analyzing both the normative and prescriptive implica- tions of the different approaches to electoral reform in each country, proposing a new conception of the participatory model of speech as encompassing a broader set of approaches to advancing the goal of participation in election law reform, and suggesting that the different approaches in the U.S. and Indian Supreme Courts reflect the “liberal” and “positive rights” conceptions of the participatory model."

Beginning in the 1990s and continuing to today, many of the legal and psychological barriers to nonprofits becoming involved in electoral politics have fallen. At the same time, political divisions have sharpened, causing candidates, political parties, and their supporters to scramble ever more aggressively for any possible edge in winner-take-all political contests. In the face of these developments, many nonprofits have violated the remaining legal rules applicable to their political activity with little fear of negative consequences, especially given vague rules and a paucity of enforcement resources. Such violations include underreporting of political activity in government filings, fly-by-night organizations that exist only for one election cycle in order to avoid penalties, and even organized campaigns that encourage nonprofits to break these rules. The increasingly visible disregard of these rules threatens not only to damage the public reputation of the nonprofit sector as a whole but also to undermine public respect for the rule of law more generally.

Many scholars, journalists, and others have documented the increasing involvement of nonprofits in politics, including numerous apparent violations of the remaining rules governing such activity. Commentators have proposed a variety of piecemeal solutions, ranging from overhauling the existing rules to repealing those rules in part or completely, sometimes with a focus on tax laws, sometimes with a focus on election laws, and sometimes with a focus on state nonprofit laws. What is needed, however, is a comprehensive approach to this issue that considers the various ways nonprofits can be involved in politics, the positive as well as negative effects of such involvement, and the interaction between these different bodies of law at both the federal and state level that relate to such involvement.

This article takes such a comprehensive approach. Drawing on the now extensive information regarding nonprofit political involvement, and where such involvement appears to have repeatedly violated the existing legal rules, this article will first provide a roadmap of such involvement and the points where political pressures are overwhelming the existing legal rules and the agencies charged with enforcing them. Next, this article will describe the various solutions proposed by commentators, highlighting the incomplete nature of those solutions but also the insights they provide regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the various legal approaches for addressing such involvement. These insights include ones relating to the historical reasons for why the legal rules have developed in the manner they have, as well as ones relating to the relative institutional competencies of the agencies charged with interpreting and enforcing those rules.

Finally, this article will propose an overall approach to modifying the existing legal rules that relieves the identified pressure points without compromising the important public policies underlying the current legal rules, including ensuring the continuing ability of nonprofits to contribute to political debates in the United States. This approach involves revising the federal tax rules for tax-exempt nonprofits to clarify what constitutes prohibited political activity for charities, to loosen the unnecessary (from a tax policy perspective) restrictions on political activity by non-charitable, tax-exempt nonprofits, and, most controversially, to permit churches and other houses of worship to engage in political activity in the context of internal, in-person communications to members. It also involves shifting public disclosure rules relating to political activity from federal tax law to federal and state election law, refocusing such public disclosure on a broader range of such activity, and increasing the donation amounts that trigger such disclosure with respect to donor identities.

This comprehensive approach recognizes the importance of maintaining the current tax policy of not subsidizing efforts to support or oppose candidates for elected office while at the same time not unduly burdening the free speech, free association, and free exercise of religion rights of individuals who collectively engage in political activity through nonprofits. It also recognizes the institutional limitations of the Internal Revenue Service when it comes to enforcing tax rules relating to political activity, particularly given the breakneck pace of electoral politics, by placing greater emphasis on the federal and state laws, and their related agencies, that specifically regulate elections. By doing so, this approach recognizes and anticipates the dynamic nature of political involvement by nonprofits and so seeks not to prohibit but instead to channel that involvement in a manner that furthers overall democratic participation goals.

El financiamiento ilegal de la política está haciendo pasar a la democracia chilena por su crisis más profunda desde el fin de la dictadura en 1989. Muchos medios de comunicación y analistas políticos han interpretado este financiamiento ilegal como dinero para la compra de la conciencia de parlamentarios. Pero esa lectura supone pensar algo bastante extraño: que los dirigentes de un partido de derecha como la UDI (la colectividad más involucrada en el escándalo, hasta ahora), necesitan ser comprados para votar alineados con la elite; es decir, que si no hubiesen recibido dinero, habrían votado junto a la Concertación. Eso es difícil de sostener. Pero entonces, ¿para qué son las enormes sumas que los medios y la Fiscalía han ido revelando? Las investigaciones del cientista político Juan Pablo Luna, miradas en el contexto actual, sugieren una respuesta: es dinero para que, a través del uso intensivo del clientelismo y el marketing, triunfen en las elecciones candidatos que ya están alineados con la elite. Ese clientelismo dice Luna se transforma en tortas para el bingo de la junta de vecinos, en trofeos para el club deportivo, en pago de cuentas en época de campaña y logra que permanentemente triunfen en las elecciones los candidatos que gastan más, sin que necesiten explicar a sus votantes qué piensan en temas centrales como educación y salud pública, derechos laborales o impuestos para la elite. Debido a eso, dice Luna, quienes ganan las elecciones están completamente desalineados de las necesidades del votante medio. Ahí radicaría entonces, la perversión esencial del financiamiento electoral ilegal: no en la compra de conciencias de parlamentarios, sino en el daño que le produce a la democracia, haciéndola incapaz de reflejar lo que las mayorías quieren y necesitan.

This article is based on Robert Dahl's argument that inequalities among different social groups in polyarchies tend to be non-cumulative. We investigate the question of whether this hypothesis applies to candidates for the post of State congressman in Brazil. The corpus of the study consists of 38, 278 candidates in 27 federal government units between 2002 and 2004, which covers four elections. As a dependent variable, we examine the amounts of campaign funds that were raised, and, as an explanatory variable, show that two social divisions were at work: the profession or occupation of the candidates, categorized by a model of willingness to enter politics, and the sex of the candidates. Average difference tests and a regression model show that social position (profession) is the biggest predictor of the political campaign recipe. However, between 2002 and 2010, those inequalities became more pronounced.

Since multi-party democracy was introduced in Somaliland in 2002, elections have successfully ushered in peaceful transfers of power. But questions have been raised about election financing. This study argues that in Somaliland, as elsewhere, elections should be understood not just as political processes, but also as economic events in which parties, and candidates and their supporters make investments with no guarantee
of return.

The Economics of Elections in Somaliland examines candidates’ expenditure and sources of income in the 2005 parliamentary and 2012 local council elections. To compete, candidates need to commit significant funds, often resorting to loans to fund their campaigns. The elections have given rise to a new language of electoral politics and new professions, such as vote broker. The study concludes that conceiving of elections solely as exercises in democratic representation ignores a broader social and economic reality. The lack of a regulatory system for campaign finances may compromise future electoral processes in Somaliland, and diminish both national and international confidence in them.

From the founders to the modern era, the USA has struggled with the appropriate balance of competing principles—liberty, equality and good governance. For most of the country's history, regulating political campaign contributions was seen as a fair means of protecting democratic principles and preventing corruption. That began to change, prompted by the court challenge, Buckley v. Valeo, which changed the legal view of money. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court's view that money was a vehicle of speech, instead asserting that money is speech itself. That decision began the unraveling of the campaign regulation, which continues today. This paper traces the construction of money as speech through the congressional debates and the courts and places those arguments within the context of the key principles that are inherently attached to the issue.

No atual debate da reforma política, um dos pontos centrais é o do financiamento
de campanhas eleitorais é a proibição de doações de pessoas jurídicas. No afã de se responder
prontamente aos mais recentes escândalos de corrupção, parece ser que o discurso veiculado
desde o Congresso Nacional e seus interlocutores é que tal providência terá o condão de, pelo
menos, diminuir a corrupção. Ocorre que não só não se acredita neste resultado, mas aqui se
tentará demonstrar que haverá justamente o efeito reverso, o que será muito prejudicial ao
sistema político brasileiro a longo prazo.

Many researchers have assumed that social media will reduce inequalities between elite politicians and those outside the political mainstream and that it will thus benefit democracy, as it circumvents the traditional media that focus too much on a few elite politicians. I test this assumption by investigating the association between U.S. Representatives using Twitter and their fundraising. Evidence suggests that (1) politicians' adoptions of social media have yielded increased donations from outside their constituencies but little from within their own constituencies; (2) politicians with extreme ideologies tend to benefit more from their social media adoptions; and (3) the political use of social media may yield a more unequal distribution of financial resources among candidates. Finally, I discuss the implications of these findings for political equality, polarization, and democracy.

""Den „Vater aller WahIkampfmanager in der Bundesrepublik“ nannte ihn Peter Radunski. Harry Walter, Jahrgang '29, hat rund 90 Wahlkämpfe hinter sich. Als Stratege und Werbechef für die SPD in Bundes-, Landtags-, Kommunal- und Europawahlen seit 1969. Auch für Sozialdemokraten im Ausland – in der Türkei. in Kenia, Israel, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica und Portugal.
Zunächst raste er als Fotoreporter durch das Nachkriegs-Berlin, ging dann an die Werbefachschule und hörte nebenbei an der Freien Universität. Seine Abschlussarbeit über den Wahlkampf '57 schickte er an die SPD nach Bonn. Keine Antwort. Erst als die Kreativdampfwalze aus der Werbebranche 1969 die SPD-Agentur ARE Kommunikation übernahm, wurde Walter zum Full-Service-Wahlkampfprofi für Themen, Technik, Abwicklung und Finanzen.
SPD-General Peter Glotz wollte den Oldtimer 1982 nicht mehr. 1987 und 1990 holte man ihn, mittlerweile im Ausland hochgeschätzt, für kleinere Aufträge zurück. Nach den Wahlkämpfen in NRW und Mecklenburg-Vorpommem 1994 will er sich zur Ruhe setzen.
Mit der OZ sprach die lebende Legende über Wahlkampf, Geld, Plebiszite, Politprofis und die Oma mit der Plastiktüte. Und was der „Bauchmensch“ Harry Walter gegen „politologisch und soziologisch geschulte Eierköppe“ hat.
""

ZUM BUCH: Will Politik beraten sein?  Ja, aber nicht immer, nicht überall und nicht durch jeden, der Politikberatung professionell oder als Wissenschaftler anbietet. In der Berliner Republik hat sich die Nachfrage nach Politikberatung gewandelt. Ein klares Indiz hierfür ist die wachsende privatwirtschaftliche Politikberatung. Der Anspruch lautet heute: Zum einen zwischen Politik, Wirtschaft und Öffentlichkeit zu vermitteln; zum anderen die Brücke zwischen Wissenschaft und politischer Praxis zu schlagen.

Die deutsche Politikberaterszene sucht international nach Orientierungspunkten und ein neues Selbstverständnis, auch als Profession. Zur Professionalisierung gehört, angeheizt durch Affären und Skandale, die wachsende Debatte um Ethik, Verhaltensregeln, Selbstregulierung und die Grenzen von Lobbying, Spin und Kontaktgeschäft. Denn Politikberater bewegen sich oft auf dem schwierigen Gelände von Interessenkonflikten und geringer demokratischer Kontrolle.

Dieser Band dokumentiert zwei Berliner Fachtagungen der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Politikberatung und dem Deutschen Institut für Public Affairs. Zu Wort kommen Praktiker aus dem In- und Ausland. Ihre Analysen werden ergänzt durch eine bisher einmalige Dokumentation internationaler Beispiele für Verhaltensregeln für Politikberater und Politiker.