Foreign aid in the post-colonial Africa: Means for building democracy or ensuring Western domination?

Foreign Aid and Democracy Promotion: Lessons from Africa

The disappointing results of international democratisation efforts are often attributed to domestic conditions that make it difficult for democracy to be established or survive. This paper recognises that the process is largely an endogenous one and that significant structural impediments exist. It argues that international actors, though for the most part absent from current theories of democr...

Foreign Aid and Democratic Development in Africa

Over the past two decades, donors increasingly linked foreign aid to democracy objectives in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet systematic research on this topic typically focuses on how aid influences democratic transitions. This study investigates whether and how foreign aid affects the process of democratic consolidation in sub-Saharan Africa by examining two potential mechanisms: (1) the use of aid as...

17 Can Foreign Aid Save Africa ?

Christians in Colonial Africa

Using information on the precise locations of Catholic and Protestant mission during Africa’s Colonial period, I examine the long-term impact of Protestant and Catholic missionary activity on religious conversion, education, civic participation and attitudes towards democracy. Examining variation across ethnicities and villages within 17 sub-Saharan African countries, I provide evidence that Pr...

Disasters, Donors, and Democracy: Matching Donor Types and Aid Channels in Post-Disaster Humanitarian Aid Giving

Research into the determinants of foreign aid giving suggests different predictions for the effect of recipient country democratic institutions on the probability and amount of aid given by donor countries. While some suggest that better governance in recipient countries may increase the amount of aid provided by donors, others adhere to the notion that less democratic recipient governments may...