英文摘要 |
The 'Party state' is an important feature of German democratic politics. The 1949 Basic Law calls for political accountability within political parties, requiring democratic procedures decision-making and the provision of public statements regarding financing and expenditures. The 1967 Party Law also spells out the role of political parties in the usual Germanic detail. Legal guidelines, formal responsibilities, organizational principles, and state money are provided. However, the 1999 money-politics affair implicated the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in illegal funding schemes. Political contributions are one of the important sources of party financing and thus are a controversial locus of money scandals. It was revealed that some CDU leaders-Helmut Kohl and his henchmen-accepted large sums of money as party donations without declaring them as is required by law. Instead these party leaders stashed the money away in secret bank accounts, using some of the money to wage campaign activities. Ever since these revelations, Kohl and others have steadfastly refused to divulge the sources of these moneys, providing false, misleading, and incomplete testimony. The degree of corruption within the CDU inner circle has been shocking to many Germans. In view of the significance of the scandals, this paper examines some interrelated issues: a brief historical survey of laws regulating party contributions and spending; tthe origins, details, and impacts of CDU's financial scandals; and analysis of the reforms proposed for contribution loopholes. We conclude that money and power are two sides of the same coin. |