Populism and foreign aid

Pundits, development practitioners, and scholars worry that rising populism international disengagement in developed countries have negative consequences on foreign aid. However, how aid go together is not well understood. This paper provides the first systematic examination of this relationship. We adopt popular ideational definition populism, unpack into its core “thin” elements, examine them within a delegation model policy—a prominent framework literature. In so doing, we identify specific domestic political processes through which components may affect spending. argue increases one component populism—anti-elitism—and nativist sentiments, an associated concept, donor country lead to reduction spending public opinion channel. supply both micro- macro-evidence for our arguments by fielding surveys United States Kingdom as analyzing large number OECD donors. Our findings show nativism anti-elitism, rather than per se, influence only individual attitudes toward but also actual policy generate important insights address populist challenges Beyond these, study contributes broader International Relations literature demonstrating useful analytical approach studying nativism, policy.