ABSTRACT
It is a relatively easy exercise to specify the standards that party funding would have to meet in an ideal democracy. Unfortunately, these standards are not met even in long-established liberal democracies, and, arguably, it may be that much more difficult for regimes that are in the process of democratizing. Most especially, regimes that started to democratize in the late twentieth century (or to re-democratize in these years) may find it difficult to establish methods of funding parties that come anywhere close to realizing these desiderata. To understand why this should be so, and what if anything, democratizing regimes might do about it, we must begin by outlining what these desiderata are.
