Introducing the PFxEU tracker dataset: Tracking political financing in the European Union
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231193830 |
| Author | Alexander Katsaitis |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Forum |
Introducing the PFxEU
tracker dataset: Tracking
political financing in the
European Union
Alexander Katsaitis
Department of Political Science, Stockholm University,
Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract
A rich literature examines the links between politics, money and corruption across the
globe. Somewhat surprisingly, this topic has not found much attention in European
Union studies. This article presents the PFxEU tracker, an open-access dataset that
tracks the financial donations received by European Union political parties. It systemat-
ically codes (a) each donation received; (b) its amount; (c) the type of donor; and (d) its
region of origin. Analysing the dataset, a cleavage can be observed. On one side are par-
ties that have Eurosceptic and nationalist agendas and individual donors. On the opposite
side are federalist agendas and international-business donors. Moreover, individuals form
the largest donor category, and nearly half of all donations come from Central and
Eastern Europe. PFxEU aims to encourage further research into European Union polit-
ical financing, supports research collaboration devoted to the analysis of corruption and
European Union politics and makes basic political information part of the public domain.
Keywords
Political finance, political parties, European Union, corruption, transparency
Introduction
Amongst scholars studying the role of money in politics, one phrase is particularly
popular: ‘money talks’. Studying money in politics offers a novel perspective into polit-
ical parties’links to various donors, allows for the observation of potential party capture
Corresponding author:
Alexander Katsaitis, Department of Political Science, Stockholm University, Stockholm SE-106 91, Sweden.
Email: a.katsaitis@statsvet.su.se
Forum
European Union Politics
2023, Vol. 24(4) 785–796
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/14651165231193830
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