Who handles the cashbox? Political finance and party structures in Uruguay. ¿Quién maneja la caja? Financiamiento político y estructuras partidarias en Uruguay

This article analyzes the behavior of the political parties in Uruguay in relation to electoral finance, as a window for understanding the logics of the way parties function. This analysis of the case of Uruguay reveals how, under the same electoral system, with the same norms for the regulation of spending and funding, and the same system of a public subsidy per vote, the practices of financing vary from one party to another and also within the different factions of the parties themselves. At the same time, it tries to show that this is owed to the way in which the factions and parties are organized, and particularly, the degree to which power is centralized in each one.