Conscience and association / C5
A party with an odious platform
The person and 1,000 others form a political party whose platform is to stop immigration by people of one race and repeal anti-discrimination law, by peaceful and lawful means. They apply to register it and run candidates.
What we score
Can it register, appear on the ballot and campaign?
Default assumptions: Unless a vignette says otherwise, the person is a 30-year-old citizen of sound mind with no criminal record, acting alone, on their own behalf and not for profit, in an ordinary residential area. Where subnational units (states, provinces, cantons, Länder) make their own law, each unit is scored and the result is weighted by population. 'The state' includes police, prosecutors, courts, regulators, tax authorities and anyone acting on their orders, including platforms obeying takedown orders.
Score anchors
Both the law score and the practice score use these anchors. Half points are used when a country sits between two of them.
| Score | What it means for this vignette |
|---|---|
| 10 | Yes, on the same objective, low thresholds as any party. |
| 8 | Yes, but party names or registration thresholds are restricted in ways that bear on it. |
| 6 | The party can be refused registration or a ballot label for its aims, but its members can stand as independents. |
| 4 | A court can ban or dissolve the party for its aims; members are otherwise free. |
| 2 | Banned; continuing the party is a crime: fine or under 1 year. |
| 1 | Crime: 1 to 5 years. |
| 0 | Crime: over 5 years, or only state-approved parties may exist. |
Evidence used: Electoral and party-registration law; constitutional party-ban provisions; disqualification of lists or candidates for racism or incitement; registrations refused and bans imposed.
How each country scores
| Country | Law | Practice | Process | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Zealand | 9.5 | 10 | 0 | 9.8 | A party can register with the Electoral Commission if it has at least 500 current financial members eligible to enrol (Electoral Act 1993 s3, s63); the Commission must refuse only for a non-compliant application, too few members, or a name that is 'indecent or offensive', excessively long, misleading or contains a title (ss65-66). Nothing in the Act allows refusal or dissolution for a party's aims, and New Zealand has no constitutional party-ban procedure. An unregistered party can still run electorate candidates. The only lever is the name rule, which a party can avoid by choosing a neutral name; no refusal of a party for its platform was found. |
| Ireland | 10 | 9.5 | 0 | 9.7 | Under the Electoral Reform Act 2022 s45 the Registrar of Political Parties 'shall register' a party organised to contest elections that has 300 adult members (half on the electoral register) and a written constitution providing for a periodic meeting and an elected executive; s46 lets the Registrar refuse a name only if it copies or could be confused with another party's, has more than 6 words, or lacks a regional reference for a regional party. There is no test of a party's aims and no constitutional party-ban provision; only organisations engaged in violence or other unlawful activity can be suppressed under the Offences Against the State Act 1939. Anti-immigration parties such as The National Party and Ireland First are on the April 2026 register. Df is half a point lower because campaign material that stirs up racial hatred can in principle be prosecuted under the 1989 Incitement to Hatred Act, which is rarely enforced (see S2). |
| Denmark | 10 | 9 | 0 | 9.4 | A new party needs only Valgnævnet's approval of its name and voter declarations equal to 1/175 of the votes cast at the last election (folketingsvalgloven § 12). Names can be refused only if they copy or could be confused with another party's name (§ 13), and § 12 a's exclusion covers only fraud in collecting signatures, never a party's aims. Grundloven § 78(2) allows a court to dissolve only associations that act through violence or incitement to violence. Stram Kurs, whose platform included deporting all Muslims, qualified and ran in 2019 (Wikipedia, used for this fact only). Df is a point lower because campaign statements that degrade the targeted race are prosecuted under § 266 b (see S2). |
| United States | 9 | 9 | 0 | 9.0 | No US law allows a party to be banned or refused registration for its aims; advocacy of even racist goals short of incitement to imminent lawless action is protected (Brandenburg v. Ohio, 1969, a Ku Klux Klan case). Ballot access is set by each state on content-neutral criteria, but the thresholds are not low for a 1,000-member party: California needs registrations of 0.33% of voters or a petition of 10% of the last gubernatorial vote, and Georgia gives party status only after 20% of the vote, while Mississippi needs only a registration filing. The party can campaign freely everywhere and its candidates can still run as independents by petition. |
| United Kingdom | 8 | 8.5 | 0 | 8.3 | The Electoral Commission registers parties on formal grounds only (Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 s28). It must refuse a name that is 'obscene or offensive' or whose publication 'would be likely to amount to the commission of an offence', but nothing in the Act lets it refuse a party for its aims, and the UK has no party-ban procedure outside terrorist proscription. Unlike other associations, a registered party may not restrict membership by race (Equality Act 2010 Sch 16 para 1(5)): the EHRC took the BNP to court in 2009 over its whites-only membership rules and it had to change its constitution (EHRC v Griffin [2010] EWHC 3343 (Admin)). Campaign material that is threatening, abusive or insulting and likely to stir up racial hatred can be prosecuted under Public Order Act 1986 Part III (see S2), but the platform itself is lawful. |
| Mexico | 6 | 7.5 | 0 | 6.9 | Registration thresholds keep a 1,000-member party off the ballot regardless of its aims: a national party needs 3,000 members in 20 states (or 300 in 200 districts) and at least 0.26% of the federal voter roll, roughly 260,000 people, and a local party needs assemblies with 0.26% of the roll in two-thirds of a state's districts or municipalities (LGPP arts. 10, 13). The party's declaration of principles must commit it to 'observar la Constitución' (art. 37(1)(a)), whose art. 1 prohibits discrimination by race, so INE or a state electoral body could refuse the documents for a race-based immigration platform, and parties must not 'calumniar' in their propaganda (art. 25(1)(o)). Members could still run as independents with signatures from 2% of the district roll (LGIPE art. 371). No registration refused for its aims was found. |
| Czechia | 4 | 7 | 0 | 5.8 | Under Political Parties Act 424/1991 § 4(a), (c), parties that violate the constitution and laws or 'aim to suppress the equality of citizens' may not form. The Interior Ministry refuses registration if the statutes breach § 4 (§ 8(1), appeal to the Supreme Court), and the Supreme Administrative Court can dissolve a party on the government's petition (§§ 13, 15), as it did with the Workers' Party in February 2010 (source: Wikipedia, as the court's judgment could not be opened). In practice nationalist and anti-immigration parties such as the DSSS register and run; only Chamber lists need a party, so refused members could stand only for the Senate or local councils. |
| Germany | 5 | 7 | −0.5 | 5.7 | Party status for an election depends on formal criteria such as a statute, programme and duly elected board (§ 18 BWahlG), not on aims, so the party can register and run. Under Art. 21(2) GG only the Constitutional Court can ban a party, and in the NPD case (2017) it held that an ethnic concept of the people violates human dignity but refused a ban because the party lacked the 'potential' to achieve its aims; a 1,000-member party would be in that position. Under Art. 21(3) GG such a party can still be excluded from state funding without any showing of potential (Die Heimat, ex-NPD, excluded for 6 years in January 2024). If a ban were issued, continuing the party is a crime with up to 5 years (§ 84 StGB). In practice such parties stand in elections and are watched by the domestic intelligence service. |
| Netherlands | 4 | 4.5 | 0 | 4.3 | Registering a party name needs only an association with full legal capacity, a notarial deed and a EUR 450 deposit, and the electoral council may refuse a name only if the name itself is contrary to public order (art. G 1 Kieswet), not because of the platform. But on the prosecutor's application a court must ban and dissolve a legal person whose aim or activity is contrary to public order (art. 2:20 BW), and aims that lead to 'incitement to hatred or discrimination' are presumed to be so (art. 2:20(3)), which a race-based immigration stop squarely meets. Continuing a banned organisation is punishable by up to 2 years (art. 140(2) Sr). The power has been used against a party once, when Centrumpartij '86 was banned in 1998; anti-immigration parties without an explicitly racial platform run freely. |
| Israel | 4 | 5 | −0.5 | 4.1 | A party may not be registered if its aims or acts include incitement to racism (Parties Law s.5(2)). A list or candidate whose aims or acts include incitement to racism may not run, and disqualifying a candidate needs Supreme Court approval (Basic Law: The Knesset s.7A). Kach was barred in 1988 on this ground. A platform to stop immigration by one race would probably be treated as incitement to racism, but the Supreme Court usually overturns Central Elections Committee disqualifications, and far-right lists with harsh anti-Arab platforms have run and sat in government. Disqualification petitions are filed at every election. |
| Switzerland | 3 | 5 | −0.5 | 3.7 | Switzerland has no party-registration review and no party-ban procedure. Any group can file a National Council list with 100-400 voter signatures (Political Rights Act Art. 24), and the Federal Chancellery party register checks only association form and seats held (Art. 76a). A court may dissolve an association whose objects are unlawful (Civil Code Art. 78). Campaigning for race-based immigration bars risks prosecution for publicly inciting racial discrimination (Criminal Code Art. 261bis para. 1, up to 3 years): in BGE 143 IV 193 (2017) the Federal Supreme Court upheld the convictions of the SVP general secretary and deputy, with suspended monetary penalties of 60 daily units, over the advertisement 'Kosovaren schlitzen Schweizer auf!' for an anti-immigration initiative. No party has been dissolved for its aims. |
| Singapore | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2.2 | A political party must register as a society, and under Societies Act s4(2)(b) the Registrar 'shall refuse' one likely to be used for purposes prejudicial to public peace, welfare or good order; the only appeal is to the Minister, whose decision is final (s4(4)), and the Minister can dissolve a registered party on the same grounds (s24). A party that operates anyway is an unlawful society: managing it carries up to 5 years and membership or attending meetings up to 3 years, arrestable and non-bailable (s14). Members can still stand as independents, but campaigning to bar one race risks the offence of inciting enmity against a racial group under s40 of the Maintenance of Racial Harmony Act 2025 (up to 5 years). We found no case of a party applying with such a platform, so df is based on the law and on how the race-speech offences are enforced. |
| Australia | 4 | 2.5 | −1 | 2.1 | Federal registration needs 1,500 members and a permissible name (Commonwealth Electoral Act ss 123, 129), and no law bars a racist platform. But since January 2026 the executive can specify an organisation as a 'prohibited hate group' by regulation, on ministerial satisfaction after ASIO advice that it has engaged in or advocated hate crimes. Membership then carries 7 years, and directing or recruiting carries 15 (Criminal Code ss 114A.4, 114B.1-114B.3). The White Australia Party, an association of 1,778 members founded by former National Socialist Network leaders with this kind of platform, was banned on 16 May 2026 before it could register (Criminal Code (Prohibited Hate Group—White Australia) Regulations 2026). The High Court refused interim relief ([2026] HCASJ 15, 17), heard the validity challenge on 8-9 Sept 2026, and has reserved judgment. A strictly peaceful party should not meet the listing criteria, but the only real case was banned. |
| China | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | The Constitution (Art. 1) makes CCP leadership 'the defining feature' of the system and forbids undermining the socialist system. The State Department reports that 'the government forbade the creation of new political parties' beyond the nine pre-1949 parties. Organising one is prosecuted as subversion (Criminal Law Art. 105: 10+ years for ringleaders): Lv Gengsong of the banned China Democracy Party is serving 11 years. |