# Corporate Donors In Other Countries.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corporate-donors-in-other-countries/635859
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 26, 2012, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corporate-donors-in-other-countries/635859 "2012-09-26T05:35:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2012, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corporate-donors-in-other-countries/635859/1 "2012-09-26T05:35:59Z")
I was just wondering how corporate donations are handled, legally at least, in other countries. I know due to the concept of Corporate Personhood, Corporations can donate freely to political parties in the US.
If you need more specification than that, I am talking about in Canada, France and the UK.
🙂
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2012, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corporate-donors-in-other-countries/635859/2 "2012-09-26T06:20:20Z")
Canadians recognize the concept of corporate personhood, but they don’t contribute to political campaigns, or at least not on a scale that would be more than a rounding error by American standards.
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2012, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corporate-donors-in-other-countries/635859/3 "2012-09-26T07:04:20Z")
In Australia corporations, including business corporations and trade unions, can and do make donations to political parties. The main restriction is that donations over a certain amount must be disclosed publicly by the party.
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### Author:  [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2012, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corporate-donors-in-other-countries/635859/4 "2012-09-26T09:11:40Z")
In the UK donations over £5,000 to a national party must be publicly declared; £1,000 and up must be publicly declared if it’s to a local party or association.
Loans must now also be declared.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2012, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corporate-donors-in-other-countries/635859/5 "2012-09-26T11:38:13Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#):
>
> I was just wondering how corporate donations are handled, legally at least, in other countries. I know due to the concept of Corporate Personhood, Corporations can donate freely to political parties in the US.
Corporations are legal persons in more or less every civilized country. Legal personage is a basic (and logically inevitable) concept if you want a legal system to function.
Corporate donations in the USA are a function of having much looser campaign financing laws.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2012, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corporate-donors-in-other-countries/635859/6 "2012-09-26T12:36:05Z")
At the federal level in Canada, corporations cannot donate to political parties - only real live people can do so.
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### Author:  [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2012, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corporate-donors-in-other-countries/635859/7 "2012-09-26T13:02:01Z")
> [@Malden\_Capell](#):
>
> In the UK donations over £5,000 to a national party must be publicly declared; £1,000 and up must be publicly declared if it’s to a local party or association.
>
> Loans must now also be declared.
Just to add to this, political funding is monitored by the Electoral Commission. Political parties must report their donations (and donors) over ÂŁ5k, and the Electoral Commission publishes a [searchable register](https://pefonline.electoralcommission.org.uk/Search/CommonReturnsSearch.aspx?type=basicDonationSearch).
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### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corporate-donors-in-other-countries/635859/8 "2012-09-26T17:58:45Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> Corporations are legal persons in more or less every civilized country. Legal personage is a basic (and logically inevitable) concept if you want a legal system to function.
>
> Corporate donations in the USA are a function of having much looser campaign financing laws.
I wonder how long it will be before a corporation can vote.
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### Author:  [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corporate-donors-in-other-countries/635859/9 "2012-09-26T18:14:05Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#):
>
> I know due to the concept of Corporate Personhood, Corporations can donate freely to political parties in the US.
Just a nitpick on this particular statement: the ability to make contributions isn’t an unavoidable or necessary result of personhood for corporations. There’s no requirement that a corporate person has to have all of the same rights as a natural person. As an example, a 501c3 nonprofit corporation is still a “person” and yet is unable to make political contributions if they want to retain their status.
There is no reason the laws and court decisions couldn’t have gone the other way, and prevented corporations from making political contributions. Doing so would not have conflicted with the other definitions of personhood.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corporate-donors-in-other-countries/635859/10 "2012-09-26T22:16:22Z")
In Canada there are serious limits to how much money can be raised and spent in political campaigns. The recent election in Quebec was held five weeks after it was announced (although there rumors running round for a few weeks before) and I really doubt any candidate spent as much as a million. I do watch some TV (not a lot) but I don’t recall seeing a single TV ad. The Federal Conservatives have been running desultory attack ads against the Liberals for a couple years, but I doubt they have had much impact.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2012, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corporate-donors-in-other-countries/635859/11 "2012-09-27T04:19:13Z")
Here’s the details from [Elections Canada](http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=bkg&document=ec90557&lang=e):
> [@](#):
>
> **Who can donate**
>
> As of January 1, 2007, only citizens and permanent residents of Canada can make political donations to registered parties, registered electoral district associations, candidates, nomination contestants and leadership contestants.
>
> Corporations, trade unions and unincorporated associations may no longer make political donations to candidates, registered electoral district associations or nomination contestants of registered parties. The existing prohibition on donations from these organizations to registered parties and leadership contestants of registered parties remains. However, an employer can give an employee who wishes to be a nomination contestant or a candidate a paid leave of absence during an election period, and that leave will not be considered a contribution.