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Assistance
Stronger Parties for Better Democracy
By:
PolicyPaper
Matthias Catón
International IDEA
November 2007
Political parties play a crucial role in modern
representative democracy. Despite
all their imperfections, the functions they
perform cannot be taken on by any
other entity. Party assistance needs to focus
on the functions that parties fulfil in a
democratic system rather than on unrealistic
expectations of how parties should work.
Analysis 10
What does International
IDEA do?
Actors in party assistance 10
International IDEA acts as a Types of party assistance programmes 14
catalyst for democracy building
by providing knowledge Recommendations 18
resources and policy proposals Why do we need principles? 18
and supporting democratic
reforms in response to specific Functions first 19
national requests. Integration is the key 20
Systematic planning and implementation 21
Areas of work
Tools for the project cycle 23
IDEA’s notable areas of
expertise are: Conclusions 32
• Constitution-building
processes References 33
• Electoral processes
• Political parties Abbreviations 35
• Democracy and gender
• Democracy assessments
List of tables
Table 1 Functions of political parties in government
Where does International and opposition 7
IDEA work?
International IDEA works Table 2 Expenditure on party assistance 12
worldwide. It is based in Table 3 Matrix of party assistance target areas and
Stockholm, Sweden, and has methods of delivery 14
offices in Latin America, Africa
Table 4 Categories of International IDEA’s democracy
and Asia.
assessment 24
List of figures
Figure 1 Actors in party assistance 11
Figure 2 Functional dimensions of political parties 19
Figure 3 Phases of scenario development 25
Figure 4 Sample scenario matrix 26
Figure 5 Connecting needs assessment, scenarios and
party functions 27
Figure 6 Perspectives of the basic Balanced Scorecard
(Kaplan and Norton, 1992) 28
International
International
IDEA
IDEA
Key Recommendations
1 Party assistance actors—donors, assistance providers and assistance partners—should
agree on common principles for assistance project delivery. This would make projects
more effective and less vulnerable to accusations of undue interference with other countries’
democracies.
2 The assistance community needs to develop a tool-kit for needs assessment, monitoring of
implementation and evaluation of projects.
3 Party assistance needs to focus on the functions that parties fulfil in a democratic system
rather than on unrealistic expectations of how parties should work. These basic functions
are: to develop consistent policies and government programmes; to pick up demands from
society and bundle them; to recruit, select and train people for positions in the executive and
legislature; and to oversee and control government.
4 The traditional field of actors in party assistance should be complemented by other actors,
such as Party Internationals and regional cooperation forums.
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International IDEA
Executive Summary
P
olitical parties play a crucial role develop joint principles for project needs
in modern representative democ- assessment, monitoring of implementation
racy. Despite all their imperfec- and impact evaluation. Such principles would
tions, the functions they perform make activities more effective and efficient.
cannot be taken on by any other They would allow all actors, including
entity. The functions are: (1) to assistance partners, to choose appropriate
develop policies and programmes, (2) to pick remedies for specific problems and they would
up demands from society and bundle them also make party assistance less vulnerable to
into different options, (3) to recruit and select accusations of partisanship or undue foreign
people for executive and legislative positions interference.
(and other positions in politics) and (4) to ex- Instead of having unrealistic, normative
ercise control over government. ideas of how parties should work, their
Party assistance as a field of international functions, as described above, should be at
cooperation has existed since the 1950s and the centre of the new principles. The major
has been expanding steadily since, both in obstacle to effective party assistance is the
terms of money spent and the number of ac- difficulty of linking activities directly to
tors involved. Despite this long tradition, par- their ultimate goal of enhancing democracy. Effective Party Assistance:
Stronger Parties
ty assistance is still very weakly systematized Indirect measurement tools are necessary to for Better Democracy
and lacks coherent standards and principles overcome this inherent weakness. Such tools
with regard to what projects should achieve, can be scenario development and state of
how appropriate activities can be identified democracy assessment for needs assessment
and how effects are to be measured. and the balanced scorecard approach for
The party assistance community should implementation monitoring and evaluation.
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International IDEA
Introduction
Purpose of this paper and overview
T
he purpose of the policy paper is to the desired results with an optimal input of
initiate a broad dialogue among party resources. The principles are not meant to
assistance stakeholders to discuss be binding rules that determine every step,
and to reach a common understanding of but to provide help and a reference point for
what effective and efficient party assistance stakeholders during the process.
entails. Ultimately, the goal is to lay the basis Although party assistance is an important
for establishing general principles for party part of democracy assistance today, it lacks
assistance and to share best practices that will systematic information and analysis, which in
help stakeholders to design and implement turn can severely obstruct learning processes.
effective assistance projects that are informed Only recently have a number of studies been
by context-specific needs assessments. In published that map assistance activities.
that sense, it is not an end in itself, but rather Mostly, these analyses conclude that assistance
the start of an interactive process among providers still fail to carry out extensive
stakeholders to make party assistance more assessments and evaluations. Assessment
effective and relevant. and evaluation are crucial not only for
We define party assistance as any type informing the design and implementation of
of international assistance geared towards programmes, but also for accountability to the
individual parties or the party system as a public that funds the overwhelming majority
whole, with the purpose of strengthening of party assistance activities. Assistance
democracy in a given country. In line with partners in party assistance programmes
the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, would also benefit from more systematic
we understand effective assistance in a broad information. It would enable them to identify
sense that includes more than just the literal the kind of assistance they need, which they
meaning of ‘producing an effect’. Specifically, could then actively seek rather then being
effective assistance encompasses targeting subject to the agendas of donors or assistance
assistance to different contexts, defining clear providers. As is explained below, the interests
aims and related indicators, harmonizing of the assistance partners may not always be
programmes to avoid duplication, in line with the requirements of democracy as
and strenghtening transparency and a whole, but at the same time, any assistance
accountability. activity will be of very limited use if it does
The paper aims to be both a policy paper not meet a need of the assistance partner.
and a discussion paper. It recommends This policy paper is directed at staff from
and argues for the introduction of agreed donor agencies and assistance providers who
principles, but it leaves the content of these design assistance programmes or allocate
principles open to further interactions with funding. It is also directed at party assistance
stakeholders and limits itself to some ideas partners who want to know more about how
as a basis for discussion. It explores the way to assess their own needs in order actively to
international assistance to political parties seek the assistance they need.
is delivered and recommends ways in which The next two sections of this introduction
assistance could be improved. The key goal describe the context and the problem; namely,
is to make party assistance as effective and why political parties are important for a
efficient as possible, meaning that it achieves functioning democracy, the roles they have
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International IDEA
to fulfil and the problems or weaknesses they Table 1: Functions of political parties in government and opposition
typically face in new democracies. The chapter
entitled Analysis deals with party assistance, Articulation Aggregation Recruitment
Government Implement policies Sustain support for Fill government
the types of activities, the actors and the way government positions
assistance is usually carried out. The chapter Opposition Develop alternatives Gain support for Build pool of
entitled Recommendations gives International change competent people
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International IDEA
mandated by anybody other than their overlap, but are not necessarily the same. Party
members. What is more, they are part of the assistance has to bear in mind the relationship
demand side of politics. Their demands have between the overall function of democratic
to be aggregated by an institution and this parties and the goals of individual parties.
institution is the party system (Doherty 2001: The objective of party assistance is to enhance
25–6). Parties are also important because democracy. In order to be effective and to
they provide an institutional memory be accepted by the assistance partners, it has
of policies and politics. This knowledge of to benefit all the party’s goals at the same
what works and what does not is crucial time.
to continuity. A political system that is
characterized by individuals rather than by
parties cannot provide this memory and How do parties operate in
also carries the danger of bureaucratic and reality?
technocratic dominance. In addition, parties
aggregate policy options into bundles, as is To assess the current situation of political
described in Function 2 above. parties and to understand their weaknesses
The interests of a given party, its leaders and needs, International IDEA carried out an
and members, are not necessarily the same as extensive Research and Dialogue programme
the functions which the party should fulfil between 2004 and 2007. More than 300
in order to sustain a working democracy. Most parties in 50 countries were included in the
scholars agree that parties can have a number project. Three comparative regional reports
of goals. These goals are to maximize their (Salih and Nordlund 2007; Stojarová et al.
vote-share, to obtain as many government 2007; Suri 2007), two sub-regional reports
offices as possible and to push a specific policy (Chege 2007; Matlosa 2007) and 17 country
agenda (Harmel and Janda 1994: 265–71). reports have been published so far; one
While the goals are linked, there still is more regional report will follow in early
considerable difference between 2008 (Adejumobi 2008). In addition, the
them. For example, maximizing vote-share information gathered is stored in an online
does not necessarily lead to an increased database that International IDEA makes
number of government offices. In countries available on an individual basis to interested
with frequent coalition governments it may be organizations and academics.1 A recent
more important for a party to position itself International IDEA publication (Roncagliolo
as a possible partner of another party than and Meléndez 2007) provides in-depth
to win as many votes as possible. Similarly, analysis of parties and party systems in the
if a party has a strong ideological agenda it Andean region.
may seem natural for it to try to become big While it is not the purpose of this policy
and powerful enough to be able to pursue its paper to summarize all the results from this
agenda. However, some parties deliberately large endeavour, it is important to highlight
choose to lose votes rather than compromise some of the key findings. Most importantly,
on their agenda. there is no uniform picture that can be
The functions of parties in a democratic painted. The state of party systems in young
system and the goals of individual parties democracies varies considerably from country
1 See http://www.political-parties.org
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International IDEA
to country and usually not all parties share creates a situation in which people are
the same weaknesses within a country. On the supportive of democracy as a whole but far less
one hand, extreme volatility—changes in vote enthusiastic about political parties.
shares from one election to another—is a ma- In Central and Eastern Europe, limited
jor problem in many young democracies. In institutionalization is one of the main
essence this means that parties are incapable problems with political parties. Parties are
of developing stable relationships with society. not sufficiently rooted in society, resulting
On the other hand, some countries, mainly in relatively high levels of volatility as voters
in Africa, experience very low volatility to the switch parties between elections or parties
extent that one party dominates the political switch their ideologies.
process over a very long time without any real- In many countries, parties tend to be
istic chance of the opposition gaining power. weakly organized, lack a coherent
In Africa, party programmes seem ideological platform and be set up around
increasingly detached from citizens’ concerns personalities rather than stable structures. As
and seem to lack creative, context-specific a consequence, new parties appear constantly,
answers to the countries’ problems. This others disappear and there is a great deal
failure, in turn, creates voter apathy and low of change both in political personnel and Effective Party Assistance:
Stronger Parties
turnouts in some areas of the continent. In in political positions. In Latin America for Better Democracy
terms of the structure of the party system, we there has recently been a rise of (neo-)
observe two contradictory trends in Africa. populist politicians who openly voice their
There is an increasing fragmentation in many contempt for the institutions of representative
countries, while in others two-party systems democracy. Research confirms that the
or dominant party systems consolidate. dissatisfaction of the population with political
International IDEA’s research has identified parties increases the chances of newcomers
two main challenges to political parties in outside the established parties winning
Africa. One is the area of party financing. elections. In the last five presidential elections
Corruption within parties is widespread in each of the five Andean countries2, almost
and it is hard to imagine how these parties half the votes went to independents or to
are supposed to be the foundation of stable, candidates who ran for newly formed parties
responsible governments. Therefore, in order (Mainwaring et al. 2006: 22).
to achieve good governance at the state To sum up, parties can have two fundamental
level, the area of party financing needs to weaknesses. One is a lack of organizational
be tackled. The other area is the problem of coherence and institutionalization, the other
leadership succession within African parties, is a lack of programmatic substance. If parties
which can often lead to severe crises. fail to perform in both areas, they will not
In South Asia, International IDEA’s be able to get much traction. However, there
research shows that the spread of democracy are also cases where parties are weak in one
has surprisingly gone hand in hand with more aspect, but strong in another. In terms of dem-
authoritarian parties where the influence of ocratic consolidation, this can be problematic
leaders rises. Furthermore, while people’s when pro-democratic parties are strong
expectations of political parties grow, the on programmatic issues and weak on organi-
parties’ ability to deliver remains low. This zation, while other, formerly authoritarian
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International IDEA
Analysis
T
parties lack a programmatic platform but act his chapter analyses party assistance. The first section deals
in a very organized way. As a consequence, the with the different actors in the field, and the second section
party system may be unresponsive to society’s analyses the different types of programmes and activities that
preferences (Carey and Reynolds 2007). are carried out as party assistance. The last section in this chapter
Most research on the state of party systems discusses how needs assessments are carried out and how activities
in newly democratized countries, including are evaluated.
International IDEA’s Research and Dialogue There are very few studies, either academic or non-academic, on
programme, presents a great variety of party assistance, let alone comparative analyses. Burnell (2000) deals
situations. A careful, context-sensitive analysis with democracy assistance in general. Carothers (2006) is the first
is crucial for any kind of party assistance comprehensive, comparative analysis exclusively dedicated to party
activity. assistance. Burnell (2006) also deals with party assistance together
Despite the different situations, the with an analysis of party systems in different regions and countries
research nevertheless shows that political and a recent book by Burnell (2007)—published by International
parties are part of the problem in most IDEA and Sida—assesses how democracy support is evaluated. In
countries where democracy is perceived by the addition, there are some studies that map party assistance activities
population not to be working satisfactorily. in a certain region, such as a report commissioned by the Olof
This is not surprising given the central role Palme International Center on democracy assistance activities in the
played by parties in the democratic process Balkans and the Black Sea region (Erhardy 2006) and a mapping
and it emphasizes that party assistance must exercise by International IDEA in Central America (Umaña Cerna
be a central field of democracy assistance. 2007). Although these studies vary in focus and depth, the
Unsatisfactory performance by political conclusions they come to are remarkably similar. Party assistance
parties is not only a problem that affects generally lacks precisely defined objectives, high quality project
newly democratized countries. In most management and proper measurement.
established democracies political parties and
politicians are held in very low esteem by their
citizens and most parties do not fully comply Actors in party assistance
with the idealistic model that is often used to
assess parties in young democracies. In other Party assistance is a field with many different actors. The first basic
words, few parties in Western countries are distinction when talking about actors in party assistance is among
completely transparent, internally democratic those who receive the assistance (assistance partners), those who
and centred around issues rather than deliver it and those who fund it. Sometimes two of these categories
persons. fall together, such as when an implementing organization also
While it is important for the proper provides the funds. Each of these groups has different interests
functioning of democracy to pinpoint crucial and follows a different approach when deciding where and how to
weaknesses of political parties in young proceed.
democracies and to find ways to overcome Primary partners in assistance programmes are, of course,
them, it is equally important not to fall for political parties. However, the exact target within parties can vary
idealistic expectations. Often, these are greatly. Programmes can be geared towards party officials, leaders,
ideal types: they may serve as a beacon, as the youth, etc. In addition, activities can deal with only one party
something to orient oneself by, but not as a or with a number of them, for example when the aim is to foster
model that one is likely to adopt fully. ■ dialogue and understanding. Depending on the objective of an
activity, assistance partners can also be civil society actors, the
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International IDEA
Assistance providers
There are four types of assistance providers:
partisan NGOs, multi-partisan NGOs,
non-partisan NGOs and intergovernmental
organizations. ‘NGO’ is used in a broad sense Democratic Friedrich Ebert Foundation
here and includes all not strictly governmental (FES) and the Christian Democratic Konrad
organizations. Most of these NGOs, however, Adenauer Foundation (KAS), started
receive all or almost all of their funding working with political parties in the 1950s.
directly from public sources. The distinction Today, they have an annual budget of more Effective Party Assistance:
Stronger Parties
between ‘partisan’, ‘non-partisan’ and ‘multi- than EUR 100 million. It should be noted, for Better Democracy
partisan’ is blurred as some organizations however, that not all of this is allocated to
engage in different types of activities, some of party assistance. The German foundations,
which may be partisan while others are multi- like most other European party foundations,
partisan. The German political foundations have a broad mandate. They work both
attach great importance to the fact that they within their country and abroad on a wide
are not party foundations, but only ‘party- range of topics from democracy promotion
related’. to participation and policy development.
Even openly partisan organizations often The amount of money they receive from
have multi-party projects. There are a number the government depends on the size of their
of reasons for this. Some types of activity, parliamentary representation. FES and KAS
such as dialogue programmes, obviously do currently receive about one-third of the total
not make sense on an individual fraternal amount each and the rest is split among the
party basis. In many countries the European other four foundations (Erdmann 2006: 183).
party foundations cannot find appropriate Funds are made available upon application to
counterparts, because parties align along the Ministry for Development Cooperation.
different cleavages and not in the clusters of Van Wersch and de Zeeuw (2005) count
the Western party families. 32 European foundations active in party
The actors with the longest experience in assistance, which are all affiliated with, or
party assistance are party foundations that close to, a political party. The only exception
operate mainly on a fraternal basis, meaning in this group is the Netherlands Institute for
that they support their counterparts in other Multiparty Democracy (NIMD), which is
countries. The German party foundations multi-partisan. Most of these foundations are
were the first to enter the scene of party very small in terms of their budget. Only
assistance. The two biggest, the Social one in four has a budget of more than
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International IDEA
EUR 10 million per year and half have a promotion. In 2005 the annual budget of the
budget of less than EUR 1 million (van NDI was EUR 77 million and the annual
Wersch and de Zeeuw 2005: 10–12). Given budget of the IRI was EUR 57 million
the broad range of activities, only a fraction (Carothers 2006: 79). Although the US
of theseresources goes to party assistance. foundations can certainly be described as
Most donors and assistance providers do not partisan by International IDEA’s definition,
disclose how much they spend specifically on their approach has always been more
party assistance, so resources spent on these multi-party than that of most European
activities can only be estimated. foundations. Most other party foundations
The German foundations dominate the are rather small. The only ones with annual
field, as they account for roughly 90 percent budgets for party assistance of more than
of the overall budget of party foundations EUR 1 million are the Swedish Social
in Europe. The only other foundations that Democratic Olof Palme International Center
match this size are the two United States (OPIC) and the Spanish Socialist Pablo
foundations, the National Democratic Iglesias Foundation (FPI).
Institute (NDI) and the International Estimates of how much of their budgets
Republican Institute (IRI). Both these were the foundations spend on party assistance
established in 1983 and they are loosely activities can be found in Table 2. Reliable
affiliated with the Democratic and the figures are difficult to obtain. Many
Republican parties, respectively. In contrast programmes serve more than one purpose
to the European foundations they work and the organizations do not always publish
exclusively abroad and focus on democracy detailed budget breakdowns. Carothers
(2006: 85) estimates that the German
foundations spent somewhere between EUR
Table 2: Expenditure on party assistance 30 million and EUR 60 million in 2004 on
Organization Overall budget Party assistance Share of party assistance activities. The considerably
in EUR in EUR total higher percentages for party assistance
budget
activities that are shown for the NDI and
NDI 77,000,000 26,950,000 35%
FES 123,500,000 24,700,000 20%
IRI compared to the German foundations
IRI 57,000,000 24,510,000 43%
are partly owing to the fact that the latter are
KAS 102,900,000 20,580,000 20%
engaged in a wide range of domestic political
HSS 42,700,000 8,540,000 20% activities. Expenditure on these activities is
FNSt 40,000,000 8,000,000 20% included in the overall budgets.
HBS 37,200,000 7,440,000 20% Non-partisan NGOs in the field of party
NIMD 6,800,000 6,120,000 90% assistance are relatively new. The NIMD was
WFD 6,200,000 4,030,000 65% founded in 2000 and now has an annual
OPIC 12,500,000 3,750,000 30% budget of slightly less than EUR 7 million.
RLS 9,000,000 1,800,000 20% The Norwegian Centre for Democracy
IDEA 11,000,000 1,650,000 15% Support was founded in 2002 and Demo
FPI 2,300,000 1,150,000 50% Finland in 2006. These three organizations
Total 528,100,000 139,220,000 n.a.
have in common the fact that they bundle
the democracy promotion activities of the
Source: van Wersch and de Zeeuw (2005), Carothers (2006), International IDEA.
Estimations for FES, FNSt, RLS and HSS based on data from KAS and HBS. All data are
from 2004, except IRI and NDI (2005) and International IDEA (2006)
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International IDEA
13
International IDEA
Target area Internal party Inter-party Parties and Party regulation International
organization relations society party assistance
Method of delivery
Training/capacity building
Dialogues
Knowledge resources
Policy advice/Consulting
Direct financial contributions
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International IDEA
other aspects of the internal functioning of ing countries. Rather than bringing together
political parties. Among these are: (a) efficient party people from developing countries with
internal communications, (b) accounting, party people from a Western country with
(c) fundraising, (d) establishing a working completely different backgrounds, South-
structure for the party, (e) dealing with the South exchange facilitates the sharing of expe-
media and (e) membership recruitment and riences among people who have recently gone
membership relations. through similar experiences.
A slightly different, albeit important, assist- Parties and society includes all activities
ance activity is to help parties develop coher- that aim to increase the participation of
ent policies. Given the frequent lack of sound women, youth and minorities in and through
programmatic platforms that can be observed political parties. These projects have become
in many parties in young democracies and the much more frequent in the last two decades.
severe consequences this has once the parties A special kind of assistance is geared
are in government, the field of policy develop- towards the party system as a whole rather
ment has been given too little attention in the than towards individual parties. Assistance
past.3 with party regulation tries to create a
Especially in conflict-prone societies, build- favourable framework within which parties Effective Party Assistance:
Stronger Parties
ing stable inter-party relations plays an im- can work. Party registration, compliance for Better Democracy
portant role in party assistance. It is based on requirements and party financing form part
the assumption that democracy can only work of this. International organizations such as
properly if parties engage in a healthy compe- International IDEA and UNDP have taken
tition for ideas and policies while at the same the lead in this subfield.
time maintaining a minimum level of consen- The last area is the meta-level of
sus. This has been described as diffuse support international party assistance. This policy
for democracy (Easton 1956). One aspect is paper is an example of an activity in this
that political competitors should still be able area. It deals with how international party
to talk to each other in a civilized manner no assistance is planned and delivered and the
matter how fierce the dispute is. A slightly dif- aims it tries to achieve.
ferent area of inter-party relations is contacts In reality, many activities fall into more
made between parties in the target country than one category. For example, a training
and those in established democracies, usually course for members of different parties
in the home country of the assistance provider can simultaneously foster the internal
or the donor. Here, of course, conflict resolu- organizational capacities of the parties and
tion is not the intention but rather learning help inter-party dialogue. The same holds true
by exposure. It is often argued that while the for many projects geared towards women in
representatives of the target countries learn politics. Assisting a women’s platform can
how democracy works in reality, their coun- both help to bring more women into parties
terparts also gain a broader understanding and create a forum for inter-party dialogue.
of the situation and the difficulties faced by
parties in young democracies. In addition, How assistance is delivered
assistance providers increasingly try to foster Assistance can be delivered in many different
‘South-South’ relationships between develop- ways. There are some common ways in
3 International IDEA has been very successful in Latin America in facilitating platforms where party representatives meet
both jointly and individually with experts on specific topics. This is a field where party assistance providers can establish 15
crucial links between parties and external policy experts.
International IDEA
16
International IDEA
programmes over a limited time. The last on how to carry out party assistance projects.
distinctive criterion is the level at which the Evaluation of party assistance activities is
activity is located. It can be at the field level still very weak. Many assistance providers do
in a single country, at a regional level or at the make some kind of evaluation, but generally
international level. it is not systematic. It tends to be carried out
by internal staff and not shared with anybody
Strengths and weaknesses of outside the institution itself (van Wersch and
today’s party assistance de Zeeuw 2005: 22–4). The lack of consist-
Party assistance has two weaknesses that ent, standard-based assessment and evaluation
may sound contradictory at first: it lacks makes it difficult to determine the impact of
systematic methodology and it is insufficiently party assistance and to improve performance.
contextualized. The first weakness means that In addition, there seems to be little institu-
there is no general framework for what party tional memory of tools and experiences, which
assistance is supposed to achieve and how requires programme designers to start from
programmes should be implemented. This scratch every time a new activity is designed.
does not mean that there are no successful The NDI has published a guide to party
programmes. At the general level, however, no assistance (NDI 2001) that highlights some Effective Party Assistance:
Stronger Parties
such framework exists. The second weakness key elements in planning and evaluating for Better Democracy
refers to the fact that assistance providers tend party assistance programmes. It rightly points
to apply the same solutions everywhere or to out that any needs assessment has to be done
copy experiences from other countries. Yet jointly with the partners in the assistance
each situation is different, and if assistance programme. Regarding indicators for evalu-
is to be effective, it has to be tailored to tion the guide focuses on training sessions and
specific contexts. Parties operate in a complex recommends surveying participants. This is a
environment that is influenced by political, step in the right direction, but it needs to be
societal, cultural and historical factors. These much more comprehensive and much more
factors need to be taken into account and precise to be useful for practitioners.
a general framework would assist such a The dilemma of using either international
process. experts with little local knowledge or local
Kumar (2005: 507) writes, ‘the internation- trainers with little experience in the subject
al community rarely had a coherent and com- matter has in part been overcome. Assistance
prehensive strategy for party development in a providers increasingly use a ‘train the trainer’
country. Instead, its approach has been oppor- approach to provide knowledge to local people
tunistic. Interested donors and NGOs have se- who can then spread it further. In electoral
lected specific areas of assistance largely on the assistance this is done, for example, by using
basis of local openings, available resources and the ‘Building Resources in Democracy,
their own interests.’ Erdmann (2006: 197–9) Governance and Elections’ (BRIDGE)
analyses the party assistance activities of the tools. This is a framework developed by
German foundations and concludes that none International IDEA, the United Nations
of them has an explicit strategy that deals with Electoral Assistance Division, the Australian
the aims of party assistance and that they lack Electoral Commission, UNDP and the
any kind of guidelines, tool-kits or handbooks US-based democracy promotion organization,
17
International IDEA
Recommendations
T
IFES. Although topics and target groups in he purpose of this section is threefold. First, it argues the need
party assistance are different from those in for common principles, agreed by the community of actors.
electoral assistance, the BRIDGE framework Second, it highlights three areas that these principles should
serves as a model for capacity-building tools cover: (a) a functional approach to political parties, (b) integration
in other areas of democracy assistance. with other fields of democracy assistance and (c) a systematic project
Party assistance activities are often linked cycle. Third, it makes initial suggestions for tools that cover the
to the specific goals of donors and assistance three phases of the project cycle. The presentation of tools is far from
providers. For example, one frequent goal complete. This part of the policy paper provides a basis for future
is to strengthen internal democracy. Others discussion and is intended to give an idea of the direction in which
are to raise the number of women and youth discussions may lead.
involved in the organization of the party.
Although these may be legitimate goals,
assistance often fails to make clear whether Why do we need principles?
these are ends in their own right or the means
to achieve better democracy. If the latter were Party assistance has been accused—rightly or wrongly—of being
the case, this would have to be made explicit too often unfocused, supply-driven and ineffective. While
in terms of the functions of political parties this can certainly not be said of all projects, there is some truth
explained in the introduction. in these assertions. The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness
If party assistance is to have an effect, it (2005) recognizes the need for better standards in development
needs to follow a sequence of steps, starting cooperation and makes several recommendations on how to improve
with identifying weaknesses and designing effectiveness. Not every part of it is relevant to party assistance, but
specific programmes to overcome them. the general challenge is the same. The Paris Declaration calls for
What is needed is a framework to assess the harmonization and more monitoring and transparency.
situation, determine the needs and properly Principles do not limit, they enable. They give assistance partners
plan, implement and evaluate assistance tools to assess their strengths and weaknesses, to determine their
activities. Proposals for this are made in the needs in terms of specific assistance and to actively go out and seek
next section. ■ this assistance. With such principles, party assistance would be
much more demand-driven in the future. Principles help donors
to determine how to spend their money wisely to maximize effect
and they enable assistance providers to be efficient and serve their
mission in the best possible way.
The fundamental aim of principles for party assistance is to
get the balance right between sufficient systematization and more
contextualization. Systematization is needed for the procedures, that
is, planning, funding, implementation, evaluation and institutional
memory. Contextualization is needed for the content of the
assistance. The current situation in international party assistance
is often the opposite. The procedures are unstandardized while
assistance providers are tempted to use off-the-shelf approaches for
the content.
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International IDEA
articulation function.
2. To pick up demands from society and
bundle them: the interest aggregation
function.
3. To recruit and select people for positions in
government and the legislature. inclusive recruitment
bottom-up structure
The fourth function (oversight and control
of government) is not mentioned here,
because it is partly a procedural function Effective Party Assistance:
broad structure
Stronger Parties
that follows from the first three. If a party for Better Democracy
is performing satisfactorily in the first
three functions it is likely to translate this
performance into effective scrutiny of
government in parliament. In addition, it
is also an end in itself, because it means is performing in a given case. Owing to the
that there are alternatives to the current qualitative nature of the assessment, a five-
government on the political market, which is point scale (very low, low, average, high, very
the essence of pluralism. high) is recommended. By connecting the
To make the abstract functions more measured values for each of the dimensions
manageable, we divide them into six one obtains the individual performance
dimensions that can be assessed for an profile for a party or party system. This profile
individual party or a party system as a can then be matched with a capability profile.
whole. The interest articulation function is A capability profile is similar to a party
determined by the degree to which a party performance profile. Instead of measuring a
programme is comprehensive and consistent. party’s performance, it maps the potential of
Interest aggregation includes the dimensions a given assistance activity to enhance each of
of having a bottom-up structure and a broad the dimensions. By overlaying performance
structure, meaning that it is firmly rooted in profiles and capability profiles it is easy to
society. The recruitment function is defined select an appropriate activity for a given
as having an inclusive and a competitive situation.
recruitment process. In the example, we have a party
The six dimensions can be mapped on a (represented by the black line) that has a
spider chart (see Figure 2). Each of the six broad structure, meaning that it is represented
axes measures how well a certain dimension widely in the country and the society. Its
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International IDEA
recruitment processes are average both in approach. This does not mean that individual
terms of competitiveness and inclusiveness. activities will no longer be possible, but
The party’s programme is consistent, but not rather that they should be carefully put into
very comprehensive. Most likely, the party a broader context and be coordinated with
will have policy proposals for just a few of the efforts in the field of electoral assistance, civil
relevant issues in the country. Also, the party society, constitution building and the rule of
is very hierarchical—it is top-down rather law.
than bottom-up. All activities have to be part of an overall
Any assistance activity for this party would programme based on a careful needs
probably address its two main weaknesses, assessment. Assistance providers and donors
namely the narrow programme and the top- are often criticized for carrying out individual
down structure. The chosen activity in this activities—such as a single workshop or a one-
case (represented by the blue line) is targeted year programme—rather than larger, more
at the programmatic dimension. As a side-ef- comprehensive projects. It is not a problem to
fect it also enhances the competitiveness of the run a single activity as long as it is made clear
recruitment process. This is, of course, only where this activity is situated in the overall
a hypothetical example to illustrate the use framework.
of the profiles. However, it could be a project Integration means not only bringing the
that links policies to the selection of candi- different components of democracy assistance
dates for party and government offices by together, but also bringing the different
helping party officials to develop a set of pro- actors together. Many of the suspicions and
posals with which they can compete for office. hesitations around party assistance could be
Assistance programmes should identify overcome if, for example, donors would seek
weaknesses through careful pre-project multilateral ways to channel their money
assessment and tailor activities accordingly, rather than doing it alone (Kumar 2005:
rather than following an activity-based 517–8). The same holds true for assistance
approach, where the type of activity is providers, especially the partisan ones. If
decided upon first. Idealistic perceptions individual projects are integrated into an
of how parties should operate should be overall scheme for strengthening the party
dropped. It is highly unrealistic to expect system of a given country, the assistance
parties in young democracies to behave in a providers could continue working with
way that parties in established democracies specific actors but effectively counter the
rarely do, and if programmes are entirely accusations of inappropriate influence (a
based on this assumption it could even be similar demand is made by Gershman and
counterproductive. Allen 2006).
Party assistance has been dominated
by party foundations thus far, as can be
Integration is the key easily judged from the budget overview in
Table 1. The foundations have done very
In order to be effective, party assistance valuable work, but there are other actors that
programmes have to be increasingly seen could complement their activities. Party
as part of a holistic democracy assistance Internationals are well suited to develop
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International IDEA
general norms for their ideological family. donors are too short-sighted and not willing
Membership creates an incentive for parties enough to fund long-term projects. Only part
to comply and the regular exchange should of the blame lies with the donors, however.
foster accountability. Party Internationals are Carefully assessed projects can and should
notoriously underfunded and have difficulties serve long-term goals even if they themselves
carrying out extensive programmes, but they are limited in scope. If a staircase represents
have become increasingly interested in party the way to enhanced democracy, each project
assistance activities. represents one step—at least if assistance
Other intergovernmental and parliamenta- providers emphasize cooperation rather than
ry bodies are also entering the scene or work- competition. Needs assessment should address
ing on related topics such as parliamentary the question of the sustainability of the assist-
support. These institutions should be encour- ance project. While the call for longer-term
aged to intensify their activities in the field projects is frequent, any measurement should
of party assistance. Examples of these bodies aim at enabling the target of the activity—
are the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the whether it is a single party or a party system—
OAS, the Inter-American Development Bank to be self-sufficient in a reasonable time. It is
(IDB) and the Southern African Development clearly not desirable to base programmes on Effective Party Assistance:
Stronger Parties
Cooperation–Parliamentary Forum (SADC- the assumption that assistance will be needed for Better Democracy
PF). indefinitely.
Needs assessment should follow a general
scheme in order to be comparable. One im-
Systematic planning and portant thing is that the assistance partners
implementation need to be involved. All assistance is doomed
if it addresses an aspect that is not considered
Comprehensive needs relevant by the assistance partners themselves.
assessment Important gatekeepers and decision-makers—
The starting point of any project activity has most notably the party leaders—have to be in-
to be careful needs assessment and planning. volved from the very beginning. This ensures
In this phase, three essential questions have to that they feel engaged and are more likely to
be answered: take advantage of the assistance. Depending
1. What is the situation like now? on the circumstances, a consultative commit-
tee with high-level representatives from the
2. What will it be like in the future and how
political parties and other key stakeholders
do we want it to be?
could be convened in the initial phase of a
3. What are the appropriate activities to project to provide input and act as a feedback
achieve the desired outcome? forum.
Needs assessment should always keep in Proper needs assessment is time-consuming
mind the long-term perspective. While indi- and expensive. Different assistance providers
vidual projects cannot usually solve all prob- should not carry out overlapping analyses, as
lems at once, it is important to know where this would be a waste of resources. Therefore,
a country should be heading. It is a common all material resulting from needs assessment
complaint among assistance providers that endeavours should be made public and be
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International IDEA
shared widely. This demand is also being but stakeholders should still try to develop
made for development cooperation in general appropriate tools.
(see for example OECD 2003: 31–44). For Evaluation starts with the planning phase
obvious reasons, many actors are reluctant to of a project. It is at this stage that appropriate
release such material. After all, despite having indicators have to be chosen and a decision
the same goal there is still a fair amount of has to be made about the data that need
competition and some actors may fear that to be gathered for this purpose during the
they would be giving away an advantage. implementation of the project. Unfortunately,
Nonetheless, to improve effectiveness it is very the beginning of a project is the point at
important that different assistance providers which the people responsible for designing
share their experiences. Regular exchange it are least likely to think of these seemingly
forums should encourage them to do so. far away requirements. Yet failure to define
Despite the general call for openness and evaluation needs at this stage will result in
transparency, one caveat should be noted. higher evaluation costs later or even make
Work with political parties is more political proper evaluation impossible.
and more sensitive than most other areas As with needs assessment, it is important
of democracy assistance and development not only that each project is properly
cooperation. The need for cooperation evaluated, but also that the results are made
among assistance providers to enhance the available beyond the group of organizations
effectiveness of their programmes may collide directly involved. There is an understandable
with demands from political parties to treat reluctance to disclose evaluation results,
information confidentially. There is no silver especially if they document weaknesses and
bullet as regards how to deal with this issue, as failures. Yet, for the sake of improvement of
it has to be addressed from case to case. party assistance all stakeholders should be able
The two first sections under “Tools for the to learn from other experiences.
project cycle” present two examples of how Evaluation usually requires indicators.
to assess the current situation of democracy Depending on the nature of the underlying
and to look into the future. The first is information, indicators can use different levels
International IDEA’s State of Democracy of measurement, ranging from ordinal (for
Assessment, the second is Scenario example, low, middle and high) to ratio
Development. They complement each other (numerical values with an absolute zero, such
and greatly facilitate the initial planning for a as number of participants). Indicators can
successful project. either be lead or lag indicators. Lag indicators
measure past performance while lead indica-
Thorough monitoring and tors are a proxy for future developments. For
evaluation example, the number of registered participants
Monitoring and evaluation are closely could be a lead indicator for the size of the
linked to needs assessment. Only when event itself. Regarding the measurement focus,
activities are results-based and developed on there are four different categories: (a) input in-
the basis of a careful needs assessment can dicators that measure how many resources are
they be evaluated. Measuring the impact of put into the project, (b) output indicators that
democracy-building activities is a challenge, measure how many products are produced,
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International IDEA
for example, how many reports have been Tools for the project cycle
published, (c) outcome indicators that
measure the effects of the output and (d) International IDEA’s State
impact indicators that measure the medium- of Democracy Assessment
or long-term impact on the over-arching methodology
project goal (OECD 2003: 57). The State of Democracy Assessment (SoD)
The indicators chosen to measure the is a methodological framework developed by
objectives should be a mix of lead and lag International IDEA together with researchers
indicators and of the different measurement from the University of Essex. It is a tool for
focuses above. It usually gets more difficult to assessing how well democracy works in a
find suitable indicators as one moves down the country from the differing perspectives of its
list. citizens. The rationale behind its development
Input and output measurements belong was the observation that democracy had
to the sphere of operational control and are become the norm in many parts of the world,
useful mainly for implementation monitoring. yet many people were dissatisfied with the
Evaluation at this level is usually done by the quality and performance of their democratic
programme staff members themselves. Impact Effective Party Assistance:
system. The State of Democracy Assessment Stronger Parties
studies are mostly long-term (some might is not the only measurement for democracy, for Better Democracy
have to cover several years) and are not done but a number of characteristics make it
by the implementing staff. This is for two unique.
reasons. First, evaluation should not be done SoD is based on democratic principles and
entirely by those who are responsible for the values against which institutional arrange-
project, because there are natural inherent ments are assessed. It places the responsibility
limits to objectivity in reflection. Second, of assessment in the hands of the citizens, or
impact evaluation is clearly outside the project internal actors, and it is based on the princi-
lifespan or cycle. Outcome evaluation is ples of popular participation and ownership.
located in between and can be seen as part of The framework is the most comprehensive tool
either the internal evaluation or the external for assessing democratic performance. It is
impact study. also a flexible framework that allows for con-
Finally, it should be noted that comprehen- textualization of the assessment. Table 4
sive impact studies may not always be feasible. summarizes the assessment framework. The
As noted, these are long-term tasks that are four-pillar framework covers 14 different
complex and can be costly. To avoid inefficien- aspects of democracy, including one that
cy, however, it is crucial to have impact studies specifically deals with political parties.
for new activities and pilot projects that The primary purpose of the assessment is
are later supposed to be scaled up or imple- to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses
mented elsewhere. Pilot projects in particular of a democracy, and use the findings to
should be carefully designed to enable proper identify and pursue priorities for democratic
evaluation, for example with regard to the reform in the specific country of assessment.
venue, selection of participants and contextual Local ownership of both the assessment
factors. process and the findings is critical. An
assessment carried out following International
23
International IDEA
Table 4: Categories of International IDEA’s State of Democracy parties may be undertaken. Any democracy
Assessment framework assessment should be complemented by a
thorough assessment of the party functions
Citizenship, law and Representative Civil society and Democracy
rights and accountable popular beyond the state
described above.
government participation In-depth information about the
Nationhood and Free and fair Media in a International International IDEA’s democracy assessment
citizenship elections democratic dimensions of
society democracy methodology may be found in a booklet
Rule of law and access Democratic role Political published by International IDEA (IDEA
to justice of political parties participation 2002) or the comprehensive Handbook on
Civil and political Government Government
rights effectiveness and responsiveness
Democracy Assessment (IDEA 2007).
accountability
Economic and social Civilian control of Decentralization Scenario development
rights the military and
the police Once we have a picture of what the situation
Minimizing looks like now, we need a way to make
corruption projections about the future. Scenarios are a
Source: IDEA (2007).
way of thinking about the future. They are
based on the assumption that a great part of
IDEA’s framework will always be done from the future is determined by unknown factors
within a country, not from the outside. As or variables that we cannot predict. Therefore,
such, the assessment itself will already have rather than just extrapolating from the
an impact on democracy. This is neither present, scenario development tries to identify
unwanted nor merely a collateral effect, it is different possibilities of what the future could
one of the purposes of the assessment. The look like. Scenario development means two
assessment process itself contributes to the things: a process for developing a vision of the
democratization process of a country through future and a way of dealing with uncertainty
debates and dialogues around salient issues itself. Great emphasis is placed on creativity,
emerging from the assessment. both during the generation of scenarios and
In what ways can the democracy in their use. In that sense, scenarios are not
assessment be useful for a needs assessment supposed to be accurate predictions, but
in the area of party assistance? There are two rather a means of stimulating thought about
options. One is to conduct a fully fledged the future.
assessment and use the results to design Like many strategic planning frameworks,
appropriate party assistance projects. In many scenario thinking has its origin in the
ways, this is the best choice, because it gives military. In the 1960s it was adapted for
the full picture rather than just a specific part. business use. The oil company Royal Dutch
However, this would be an extensive project Shell was a pioneer in this field and still
of its own that requires considerable resources publishes its Shell Global Scenarios.
both in terms of time and money. Scenarios try to look at specific questions
If a full assessment is not possible, staged from the outside and from different angles.
and/or targeted assessments are possible. For It is crucial that different stakeholders or
example, an assessment focusing only on even people not connected to the topic are
the aspect of the democratic role of political involved. There are many reasons for engaging
24
International IDEA
25
International IDEA
the outcome. These ‘driving forces’ can be The first step is to order the factors by their
either known or unknown. Known factors importance to the issue at stake and by their
are constants or variables that are relatively degree of uncertainty. Those factors that score
easy to predict, such as slow-changing highest on the two scales, that is, those that
demographic factors. As we can assume these are most uncertain and most important, are
to be set, they are included in each of the the so-called critical uncertainties. Normally,
scenarios. More interesting are those forces these critical uncertainties can be mapped
that we are uncertain about. These will make on a continuum. For example, if ‘economic
up the different scenarios. Once a list of development’ were to be a critical uncertainty,
factors has emerged through brainstorming, the continuum would range from ‘weak’ to
the next phase starts. ‘strong’. If it were ‘ethnic tensions’, a con-
Factors that should be considered when tinuum could range from ‘irrelevant’ to ‘open
dealing with party assistance are socio- violence’. The actual scenario framework is
demographic changes in society, economic now drawn by combining two critical un-
development, external (international) forces certainties in a two-dimensional matrix (see
that have an impact on the internal situation, Figure 4).
different actors, etc. The matrix has four quadrants, each of
In phase 3, the results of the brainstorming which represents one scenario. Hence, in our
are ordered and the scenarios put together. example the upper left scenario is one where
ethnical conflicts are violent and the economy
is weak, etc. The drawing of matrices is an
iterative process, which means that after
setting up a combination of two dimensions
Figure 4: Sample scenario matrix
one has to test whether the resulting scenarios
make sense. After some effort, eventually one
open violence will come up with a combination that does.
Once the framework is established, the
ethnic tensions
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International IDEA
are (assessment), where we want to go (based Figure 5: Connecting needs assessment, scenarios and party
on functions) and how external driving forces functions
can influence the general picture (scenarios).
The situation is illustrated in Figure 5.
Choosing the right programmatic activity Current situation Future (predictions) Desired situation
(function performance)
is built on the three pillars. The arrows
symbolize different programmatic options for Scenario 1
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International IDEA
measurement was not enough. According The customer perspective asesses what kind
to them financial indicators suffered in of value proposition the company makes
particular from three weaknesses. First, they and how it should approach its customers.
failed to measure intangible resources, such The internal process perspective deals with
as employee qualifications and knowledge, operational procedures that are necessary to
which are crucial for business success. achieve the goals vis-à-vis the shareholders
Second, financial indicators look backwards and the customers. The learning and growth
rather than into the future and, third, perspective identifies possible gaps in terms of
reliance on financial indicators led to short- employee knowledge and skills and describes
term thinking. BSC is an answer to these ways to overcome them or generally to
shortcomings. It tries to establish a framework enhance capacity.
for financial and non-financial indicators in In short, BSC tries to balance different
a balanced way, hence the name Balanced perspectives: internal and external, financial
Scorecard. The aim of BSC is to provide a and non-financial, future and past. It is a
tool for the comprehensive measurement of a tool that helps those who are responsible for
company’s performance and a framework for the project to steer a course and it is a means
executing corporate strategy. of being accountable to stakeholders (or
In its original form, the BSC has four ‘customers’ in the BSC terminology). These
dimensions: financial, customer, internal can be donors, assistance partners or others
business process, and learning and growth influenced by the activity. Accountability is
(see Figure 6). The financial perspective is vital for all involved. Donor organizations
concerned with economic success and the have to justify the funds they make available,
company’s relationship to its shareholders. assistance providers have to show their
ability to deliver and assistance partners
have to know that their investments—time,
commitment and other resources—are well
spent.
Figure 6: Perspectives of the basic Balanced Non-profit organizations follow a different
Scorecard (Kaplan and Norton 1992) logic from that of businesses. The most
important difference is that the ultimate
performance indicator for a company is how
much money it makes—the bottom line.
Financial
objectives – indicators Non-profits have a mission that normally
cannot be measured in monetary terms.
The customer perspective is also different.
Often, the one who pays for a service is not
Customer Internal processes the one who benefits from it. When it comes
objectives – indicators objectives – indicators
to democracy assistance or party assistance,
there is another difference. Performance
measurement in terms of results is very
Learning/growth difficult, if not impossible. The aim of party
objectives – indicators assistance is to strengthen democracy through
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International IDEA
activities with political parties. Linking the In standard BSC, mission, values, vision
success of an individual project to the overall and strategy are determined individually
progress of democracy in a country is probably by a company. In democracy assistance it is
doomed to fail. Progress in democracy is crucial to have the full commitment of the
slow and complex and will in most cases be primary stakeholders. Therefore it is advisable
impossible to attribute to one specific activity. to develop the vision (that is, the aim) and
What is more, there is still a substantial the strategy (that is, the way to get there)
amount of debate going on among academics jointly with donors, providers and assistance
and practitioners about whether and the partners. Although the process should be a
extent to which it is possible to measure the joint one, it is still described here with the
level of democracy in any meaningful way. assistance provider as the centrepiece. This has
Given all these differences, some two reasons. For one, the assistance provider
adaptations have to be made to the BSC in is the nexus between donor and assistance
order to make it useful for the non-profit partner, which do not usually interact directly
sector. Again, we shall only concentrate here (see Figure 1). Second, in most cases the
on the specific case of applying BSC as a assistance provider will be the main driving
performance measure for party assistance force behind the development of the project, Effective Party Assistance:
Stronger Parties
activity. Anyone interested in the broader as it will ultimately be responsible for the for Better Democracy
picture is encouraged to read some of the implementation.
extensive literature in the field, such as Niven There are numerous books on strategy
(2003). and how to develop one. There is no uniform
At the core of each BSC are four things (for definition of the term strategy, but normally
an in-depth description see Bryson 2004): it describes in a coherent way how the
mission, vision, values and strategy. A mission goal—stated in the vision—is supposed to be
is the raison d’ être of an organization while reached. A strategy defines priorities and these
the values describe the fundamental attitudes priorities are strongly linked to the functions
of the organization towards its work. It is of political parties described in the sections
not the purpose of an individual project to above entitled ‘The functions of parties in a
develop these. democracy’ and ‘Functions first’.
Vision and strategy, on the other hand, may As the next and final step in the planning
exist for an organization as a whole, but they process, a BSC translates the strategy into
are also essential for individual projects. measurable objectives that enable constant
The vision describes where you want to go. monitoring of the project’s progress. At the
In that sense, it should be both ambitious and end of a project, BSC allows stakeholders to
realistic. For example, the purpose of a determine not only whether the project was a
party assistance project could be to make success, but also what the particular strengths
parties in the target country better able and weaknesses were. The process-orientation
to fulfil certain functions where they currently of BSC is important because, as is noted
have weaknesses. A vision is like a scenario, above, it might not be possible to determine
but with a normative touch. It does not success or failure by comparing the vision
describe how the future will be but how it against the state of democracy after the end
should be. of the project. BSC is therefore a solution
29
International IDEA
30
International IDEA
31
International IDEA
Conclusions
P
arty assistance is a complex The principles have to balance different
field with many actors and a needs. On the one hand, they have to be
broad range of programmatic open and general enough to accommodate
approaches. It is also more very divergent project needs and operational
sensitive and political than requirements. On the other hand, they have
other fields of democracy to be specific enough to serve the primary
assistance—such as electoral assistance— goal of common standards, which is to
which usually include a considerable amount facilitate exchange of information, more
of technical assistance. The simultaneous lack precise activities and better cooperation
of systematization and contextualization leads and coordination. Beginning in 2008,
to projects that are either inefficient or the International IDEA will invite stakeholders
impact of which only be guessed. to a series of workshops on the different
Given the sensitivity of work with political sub-topics highlighted in this policy paper
parties, these weaknesses also make it easy to to advance towards common principles for
accuse international party assistance of being effective party assistance.
partisan or of interfering with the internal Developing principles and tools is not easy,
affairs of other countries. Joint principles but it can be done. This policy paper makes
would help to overcome this situation and recommendations and suggestions for possible
would enable rather than limit actors. ways. This is, however, only the start of a
While diversity is good, common principles process. The international party assistance
greatly facilitate exchange of information community—donors, providers and assistance
and make information more easily available partners—now have to come together to
und understandable. It is highly desirable discuss the matter further. International
to develop these principles of effective IDEA is prepared to act as a convenor and will
party assistance. Strong involvement of all come forward with concrete proposals on how
stakeholders is fundamental in the future. the process can be organized.
The assistance partner perspective is especially
important and its inclusion must be ensured.
32
International IDEA
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(Stockholm: International IDEA 2007)
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UNDP 2006b Handbook on Working with Political Parties (New York: UNDP 2006)
van Wersch, J. and de Zeeuw, J., ‘Mapping European democracy assistance: Tracing
the activities and financial flows of political foundations’, Working Paper 36
(The Hague: Clingendael 2005)
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Abbreviations
AECI Spanish Agency for International Cooperation
AusAID Australian Agency for International Development
BRIDGE Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections
BSC Balanced Scorecard
CDI Center for Democratic Institutions (Australia)
CIDA Canadian International Development Agency
DFID Department for International Development (United Kingdom)
EMB Electoral Management Body
FES Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Germany)
FNSt Friedrich Naumann Foundation (Germany)
FPI Pablo Iglesias Foundation (Spain)
HBS Heinrich Böll Foundation (Germany)
HSS Hanns Seidel Foundation (Germany)
IDB Inter-American Development Bank
International IDEA International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
Effective Party Assistance:
IPU Inter-Parliamentary Union Stronger Parties
IRI International Republican Institute (United States) for Better Democracy
KAS Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Germany)
NDI National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
(United States)
NED National Endowment for Democracy (United States)
NGO Non-governmental organization
NIMD Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy
OAS Organization of American States
OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
OPIC Olof Palme International Center (Sweden)
OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
RLS Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (Germany)
SADC-PF Southern African Development Cooperation –
Parliamentary Forum
Sida Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
SoD State of Democracy Assessment
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
USAID United States Agency for International Development
WFD Westminster Foundation for Democracy (United Kingdom)
35
International IDEA
INTERNATIONAL IDEA
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
SE -103 34 Stockholm
Sweden
Tel +46 8 698 37 00
36 Fax +46 8 20 24 22
E-mail info@idea.int ISBN 978-91-85724-27-7