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The private vs public sources utilized in financing electoral campaigns & political parties in various countries are compared, focusing on the situation in Croatia & major Western democracies. A table showing the introduction of public financing of political parties in individual countries in the second half of the 20th century is produced, & the enactment of laws & regulations limiting the amount of donations by individuals & corporations, controlling the raising & spending of funds, & ensuring a transparency in the finances allocated for electoral campaigns is discussed. In the US, political parties & elections are financed largely from private funds, although public matching programs are available & legal mechanisms are in place imposing limits on private donations & regulating their use. Similar processes are at work in Canada, Australia, & some European countries, eg, the Netherlands. In Austria, Italy, Germany, & Sweden, political parties rely mostly on subsidies from the state budget. In the UK, the Labour Party is financed by labor unions, while the Conservative Party by big business. Unlike in the West, the financing of political parties in Croatia remains unregulated. The absence of proper laws & regulations removes the funding of the parties & their electoral campaigns & the ways in which they raise & distribute donations from public scrutiny. 1 Table, 25 References. Adapted from the source document.