Welcome back to the podcast, Brib, Swindle, or Steel.

I'm Alexandra Rogge, and today we're talking about, among other things, how democracy

can be undermined by corruption, particularly in campaign financing.

My guest is Dr. Magnus Oman. Magnus is, among other things, senior political

finance advisor for the international foundations for electoral systems. He also has a focus for our

purposes today on anti-corruption. He specializes in European governance, but works on global

issues more generally. Magnus recently published Vote for Free, a Global Guide for Citizen Monitoring of Campaign

Finance.

The guide outlines how civil society organizations can monitor campaign finance following an eight-step

model that he's developed.

Magnus, welcome and thank you for joining me.

Thank you very much, Alexander.

What are some of the common examples of corruption undertaken through campaign financing?

I want to just jump right in and set the scene before we turn to your eight-step model.

Seeking to support an electoral contestant without transparency, without the information about

the funding source becoming known, or you're spending money to undermine confidence in the entire

electoral process is an increasingly common form of corruption in campaign finance.

Then we have things that have been going on for a long time.

Trading funding before an election for public contracts after an election is still very common.

In general terms, I'd say there are various violations that have becoming increasingly common

in many areas of the world, but nothing

of the old is going away. So the issue is just becoming increasingly complex.

...