Ideas, Interests and Foreign Aid

Shows how different countries' foreign aid programs are profoundly shaped by their visions of the purpose of aid.

A. Maurits van der Veen (Author)

9780521264099, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 1 September 2011

310 pages, 7 b/w illus. 43 tables
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.49 kg

'… a fundamental contribution to the academic debate about foreign aid.' Damiano de Felice, European Journal of Development Research

Why do countries give foreign aid? Although many countries have official development assistance programs, this book argues that no two of them see the purpose of these programmes in the same way. Moreover, the way countries frame that purpose has shaped aid policy choices past and present. The author examines how Belgium long gave aid out of a sense of obligation to its former colonies, The Netherlands was more interested in pursuing international influence, Italy has focused on the reputational payoffs of aid flows and Norwegian aid has had strong humanitarian motivations since the beginning. But at no time has a single frame shaped any one country's aid policy exclusively. Instead, analysing half a century of legislative debates on aid in these four countries, this book presents a unique picture both of cross-national and over time patterns in the salience of different aid frames and of varying aid programmes that resulted.

1. The many uses of foreign aid
2. One policy, multiple goals: framing and foreign aid
3. Debates about aid: contents and patterns
4. Aid frames: origins and evolution
5. The administration of aid policy
6. The generosity contest: determinants of aid volume
7. The popularity contest: selecting the recipients of aid
8. Conclusion: frames and policy
Appendix A. Legislative debates coded
Appendix B. Debate coding examples
Appendix C. Aid allocation: data and sources.

Subject Areas: Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], Economic growth [KCG], International relations [JPS], Comparative politics [JPB]