Comparing third party policy frameworks: Regulating third party electoral finance in Canada and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Deciding how to regulate money during elections is a critical policy choice faced by every democracy. Over the last two decades, both the United Kingdom and Canada have implemented substantial revisions to their electoral laws, including policy measures designed to regulate third party spending. Despite similar policy objectives, the countries’ approaches to regulation differ, leaving the potential for significant variation in third party spending outcomes. These differences between countries, with otherwise very similar policy goals and systems of government, provide a unique opportunity to build and test a comparative policy evaluation framework for third party campaign spending. By examining these differences and similarities, this article builds a framework for election policy evaluation that can be adapted to serve as a template for future policy evaluation, facilitating comparative research.