| Description: |
This article makes an empirical comparison of party finance in European election campaigns in France, Spain, Great Britain and Ireland between 1994 and 2009. Mainstream parties have become increasingly more reliant on state funding in European elections than in national campaigns. They have also restricted the resources that they have been willing to mobilise in EU election campaigns, a trend that contrasts with minor parties, and with the ever-increasing expenditures characterising national elections. National party organisations have also limited expenditures on publicity in EU elections. Most nominal campaign spending has been devoted to routine administration costs rather than mobilizing voters, emphasizing the persisting second-order character of EU elections.
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