Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.org ISSN (Paper)2224-5766 ISSN (Online)2225-0484 (Online) Vol.4, No.7, 2014 29 Examining Electorates’ Perception on the State Funding Political Parties Activities in Ghana Ernest Adu-Gyamfi Ghana Education Service, Diaso Senior High School, Post Office Box Dw 13, Diaso, Central Region, Ghana E-mail: socialanalyst2004@yahoo.com Abstract It is widely recognised that representative democracy could not function without political parties, which provide a critical link between free civil society, effective and accountable government. Therefore, this study examined the perception of electorates on the state to fund political parties in Ghana. Descriptive survey technique and simple random sampling were used to select respondents for the study. The sample size was eight hundred with interview and questionnaire as the research instrument. Findings revealed that electorates’ understanding of the accurate role and functions of political parties is very good. From the study, all the respondents (100%) were able to state a number of important functions of political parties and 95% of the respondents’ immediate response to the suggestion of state funding of political parties was that they would not be happy and agree that state money be used to fund political parties’ activities because there are other equally crucial state priorities that need to be considered presently. The study concluded that Efficient, equitable and sustainable party financing is necessary for establishing strong democratic government and recommended that public support for state funding of political parties is very poor therefore citizens’ confidence for state funding needs to be established and there must be education for political parties’ members to be card-bearing members to ensuring smooth payment of membership dues. Keywords: Political parties, electorates’ perception, parties funding, democracy, Ghana 1.1 Introduction Political parties are paramount institutions of contemporary democratic governance. The common consent in relative political thought and among policy makers is that political parties performs a fundamental function in deepening and nurturing democracy in both well-known as well as up-and-coming democratic politics. This is rightly captured by the assertion that ‘political parties created democracy and modern democracy is unthinkable save in terms of the political parties’ (Schattschneider, 1942: 1). The significance of political parties in the establishment of current politics and governance is not a new occurrence of present-day societies. Political parties have been part and parcel of political establishment since the foundation of the nation state. Political parties execute vital roles without which representative democracy cannot survive. They present different policies from which electorate select at elections, arrange campaigns to marshal electorates and possibly most crucially, they present candidates for political office. Political Parties form the engines of democratic political systems for they stimulate contest between public groups and welfare. They are helpful instrument by which average citizens can have any individual make contact with the body politic. They are mandated to motivate and draw followers to their cause, their membership being of key significance in their claim to represent populace. They however maintain to be entrusted with what is perhaps the most calculated conscientiousness of modern democracy – to organize and choose candidates for both parliamentary and presidential elections and then to sustain them into positions of leadership and government. Democracy cannot function successfully lacking tough and vigorous political parties. There is an increasing worry that political parties are lacking resources in particular opposition political parties to enable them carry out the tasks we anticipate them to do. The debate about the funding of political parties is therefore a debate about the worth of governance. The funding of political parties is an input subject for ensuring good governance and fighting fraud. Nevertheless, for democracy to do well within existing scant resources, an efficient, impartial and sustainable party funding is regarded as a means forward (CDD, 2005a). Without a doubt, a healthy funding base for all parties is a prospective driver of political party enthusiasm and competitiveness. Funding the practice of democracy is therefore the primary key direction to fostering a strong democratic and transparent culture from within (CDD, 2005a). The incapability of a democracy to create sufficient provisions for its funding creates a productive situation for corruption and poor governance which impact unconstructively on society. 1.2 Statement of Problem Political Parties require to making revenue to fund for their electoral rallies and also cover their running costs as political institutions with a task to participate between elections. Nonetheless political parties, in emerging as in grown-up democracies, are under growing demands, faced with a fierce circle of rising costs of political activities, insignificant membership income, and deepening public doubt about the undesirable position of money in politics. Their troubles of fund-raising are causing profound concern to politicians and all those who