ABSTRACT
The long-term competition of parties has three basic pillars: organization, volunteer work and finance. Political finance is important due to its effect on election results and on parties which are the dominant political actors and as a means to secure the everyday activities of parties which try to establish links with different social groups. This activity demands a lot of financial resources. The importance of money has grown especially during the last decade as election campaign costs have dramatically increased due to the changes in development of election communication and the transformation of campaign organizations (for example, the growth of spin doctors and political consultants, strategic news management, the decline of traditional forms of party campaigning and the growing use of indirect channels of communication such as different types of mass media).1 Lithuania is no exception-an analysis of Lithuanian election campaign spending indicates that the importance of campaigning started to grow during the 1996 parliamentary elections and the tendency continues today.
