Charitable ends (perhaps) by political means

Abstract

The unregulated use of private monies to finance political activities has received international attention given the possible risks to democracy. In regulating the political activities that charitable organisations can perform without losing their fiscal privileges, are governments regulating the use of private monies to finance political activities and hence taking an approach consistent with their treatment of the private donations that political entities receive? Or are they regulating the activities that can credibly advance charitable purposes and hence taking an approach distinct from their treatment of political entities? This chapter addresses that question by categorising and comparing the approaches of 16 countries. It gauges degrees of similarity and difference both across countries and between their treatment of charitable organisations and political entities using a range of permissive and restrictive stances derived from the opposing pairs of political philosophies and models of democracy present in the central debates of the legal literatures on charity finance and campaign finance. All but three of the countries take different stances toward regulating charitable organisations and political entities. The chapter offers explanations for why such differences might exist and draws inferences for governments seeking to restrict the use of private monies to finance political activities.