Open AccessDoes Foreign Aid Promote Democracy?
Author(s) -
Knack Stephen
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
international studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.897
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1468-2478
pISSN - 0020-8833
DOI - 10.1111/j.0020-8833.2004.00299.x
Subject(s) - democratization , conditionality , democracy , democracy promotion , aid effectiveness , authoritarianism , political science , legislature , per capita , development economics , civil society , presidential system , economics , developing country , economic growth , politics , sociology , law , demography , population
Aid potentially can contribute to democratization in several ways: (1) through technical assistance focusing on electoral processes, the strengthening of legislatures and judiciaries as checks on executive power, and the promotion of civil society organizations, including a free press; (2) through conditionality; and (3) by improving education and increasing per capita incomes, which research shows are conducive to democratization. This study provides a multivariate analysis of the impact of aid on democratization in a large sample of recipient nations over the 1975–2000 period. Using two different democracy indexes and two different measures of aid intensity, no evidence is found that aid promotes democracy. This result is robust to alternative model specifications and estimation techniques, including the use of exogenous instruments for aid. Results are similar if the analysis is confined to the post–Cold War period (1990–2000), despite the reduced dependence of the U.S. and other donors on pro‐Western authoritarian regimes among aid recipient nations.