Financing of political parties in lithuania

This master‘s paper uses controversial issue of party financing as an example to explore the effectiveness of a particular regulation. The aim of the paper is to give an objective overview of the issue of political party financing in Lithuania that may be worth while elaborating and before adopting new regulations in this sphere. Author discusses the situation in Lithuania and other countries thus giving the analysis and recommendations for particular circumstances of party finance in country. In this master’s paper main further-used concepts are analysed, looking for answers to questions like: how to ensure the transparency of the funding of political parties? What are the preconditions for regulation to be effective? How far should public funding be used to support political parties? As legislation on financing of political parties is studied, the master’s paper searches for main ideas about political parties and the notion what is the aim of financing regulation. Consequently, the answer allows formulating the aim and objectives of party finance regulations introduced in Lithuania, and seeing the main problems obstructing the reaching of the aim. The present problems in Lithuania include, first, lack of control and transparency, second, unfairness in political struggle, and financial barriers to enter it, third, threat of corruption and illegal influences of sponsors, fourth, violation of limitations and restrictions, and finally, fall-off in public trust of political parties. The main part of the paper is devoted to the analysis of concrete regulations – which of proposed or recommended means can be the most effective to reach the stated aim and overcome the problems. Explored are the regulations on disclosure, control and sanctions, income, expenditure regulations, and regulations on public funding