Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T06:09:20.958Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

How Do People Evaluate Foreign Aid To ‘Nasty’ Regimes?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2018

Abstract

Recent theories of foreign aid assume that moral motives drive voters’ preferences about foreign aid. However, little is known about how moral concerns interact with the widely accepted instrumental goals that aid serves. Moreover, what effects does this interplay have on preferences over policy actions? This article assesses these questions using a survey experiment in which respondents evaluate foreign aid policies toward nasty recipient regimes (those that violate human rights, rig elections, crack down on media, etc.). The results indicate that the public does have a strong aversion to providing aid to nasty recipient regimes, but that it also appreciates the instrumental benefits that aid helps acquire. Contrary to a mainstay assertion in the literature, the study finds that moral aversion can largely be reversed if the donor government engages more with the nasty country. These findings call into question the micro-foundations of recent theories of foreign aid, and produce several implications for the aid literature.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Department of Political Science, University of South Carolina (email: heinrict@mailbox.sc.edu); Department of Political Science and International Relations, Nazarbayev University (email: yoshiharu.kobayashi@gmail.com). Authors’ names are listed alphabetically. Both authors have contributed equally to the article. We are grateful for comments from the four anonymous reviewers and participants at the 2015 MPSA, 110th APSA Annual Meeting (2014), 2014 KUBEC workshop, 4th Annual General Conference of the European Political Science Association (2014), and in particular from Daina Chiba, Simone Dietrich, Shu-Shan Lee, Sonja Grimm, Carla Martinez Machain, Han Dorussen, Tom Scotto, Randy Stevenson, Christina Schneider, Atsushi Tago, Mike Tierney, Dan Tirone, Teppei Yamamoto, Tim Peterson and Cliff Morgan. We also wish to thank Max Hilbig for help with executing the survey experiment and Thomas Leeper for dealing with Amazon’s MTurk. Data replication sets are available in Harvard Dataverse at: https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7910/DVN/TKTN5J and online appendices are available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123417000503.

References

Aldrich, John H., Gelpi, Christopher, Feaver, Peter, Reifler, Jason, and Sharp, Kristin Thompson. 2006. Foreign Policy and the Electoral Connection. Annual Review of Political Science 9:477502.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, and Weder, Beatrice. 2002. Do Corrupt Governments Receive Less Foreign Aid? The American Economic Review 92 (4):11261137.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, and Dollar, David. 2000. Who Gives Foreign Aid to Whom and Why? Journal of Economic Growth 5 (1):3363.Google Scholar
Allendoerfer, Michelle Giacobbe. 2017. Who Cares About Human Rights? Public Opinion about Human Rights Foreign Policy. Journal of Human Rights 16 (4):428451.Google Scholar
Ambrose, Stephen E., and Brinkley, Douglas G.. 2011. Rise to Globalism, 9th Edition, London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Ansolabehere, Stephen. 2012. Guide to the 2012 Cooperative Congressional Election Survey. Unpublished.Google Scholar
Ballard-Rosa, Cameron, Martin, Lucy, and Scheve, Kenneth. 2017. The Structure of American Income Tax Policy Preferences. The Journal of Politics 79 (1):116.Google Scholar
Barratt, Bethany. 2007. Human Rights and Foreign Aid: For Love or Money? London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bauhr, Monika, Charron, Nicholas, and Nasiritousi, Naghmeh. 2013. Does Corruption Cause Aid Fatigue? Public Opinion and the Aid-Corruption Paradox. International Studies Quarterly 57 (3):568579.Google Scholar
Baum, Matthew A., and Potter, Philip B. K.. 2008. The Relationships between Mass Media, Public Opinion, and Foreign Policy: Toward a Theoretical Synthesis. Annual Review of Political Science 11:3965.Google Scholar
Bayram, A. Burcu. 2017. Aiding Strangers: Generalized Trust and the Moral Basis of Public Support for Foreign Development Aid. Foreign Policy Analysis 13 (1):133153.Google Scholar
Bearce, David H., and Tuxhorn, Kim-Lee. 2017. When are Monetary Policy Preferences Egocentric? Evidence from American Surveys and an Experiment. American Journal of Political Science 61 (1):178193.Google Scholar
Bechtel, Michael M., and Scheve, Kenneth F.. 2013. Mass Support for Global Climate Agreements Depends on Institutional Design. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110 (34):1376313768.Google Scholar
Berinsky, Adam J., Huber, Gregory A., and Lenz, Gabriel S.. 2012. Evaluating Online Labor Markets for Experimental Research: Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk. Political Analysis 20 (3):351368.Google Scholar
Berinsky, Adam J., Margolis, Michele F., and Sances, Michael W.. 2014. Separating the Shirkers from the Workers? Making Sure Respondents Pay Attention on Self-Administered Surveys. American Journal of Political Science 58 (3):739753.Google Scholar
Bermeo, Sarah Blodgett, and Leblang, David. 2016. Migration and Foreign Aid. International Organization 69 (3):627657.Google Scholar
Besley, Timothy, and Persson, Torsten. 2011. Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters: The Political Economics of Development Clusters. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Birdsall, Nancy, and Kharas, Homi. 2013. Quality of Official Development Assistance Assessment. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development.Google Scholar
Brancati, Dawn. 2014. The Determinants of US Public Opinion Towards Democracy Promotion. Political Behavior 36 (4):705730.Google Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce. 2002. Domestic Politics and International Relations. International Studies Quarterly 46 (1):19.Google Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce, and Smith, Alastair. 2009. A Political Economy of Aid. International Organization 63 (2):309340.Google Scholar
Buntaine, Mark T., and Parks, Bradley C.. 2013. When Do Environmentally Focused Assistance Projects Achieve their Objectives? Evidence from World Bank Post-Project Evaluations. Global Environmental Politics 13 (2):6588.Google Scholar
Bush, Sarah Sunn. 2015. The Taming of Democracy Assistance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Carey, Sabine C. 2007. European Aid: Human Rights versus Bureaucratic Inertia? Journal of Peace Research 44 (4):447464.Google Scholar
Carothers, Thomas, and De Gramont, Diane. 2013. Development Aid Confronts Politics: The Almost Revolution. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Google Scholar
Chong, Alberto, and Gradstein, Mark. 2008. What Determines Foreign Aid? The Donors’ Perspective. Journal of Development Economics 87 (1):113.Google Scholar
Chong, Dennis, and Druckman, James N.. 2007a. A Theory of Framing and Opinion Formation in Competitive Elite Environments. Journal of Communication 57 (1):99118.Google Scholar
Chong, Dennis, and Druckman, James N.. 2007b. Framing Theory. Annual Review of Political Science 10:103126.Google Scholar
Collier, Paul. 2007. The Bottom Billion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Davies, Graeme A. M., and Johns, Robert. 2013. Audience Costs among the British Public: The Impact of Escalation, Crisis Type, and Prime Ministerial Rhetoric. International Studies Quarterly 57 (4):725737.Google Scholar
Dietrich, Simone. 2011. The Politics of Public Health Aid: Why Corrupt Governments Have Incentives to Implement Aid Effectively. World Development 39 (1):5563.Google Scholar
Dietrich, Simone. 2013. Bypass or Engage? Explaining Donor Delivery Tactics in Foreign Aid Allocation. International Studies Quarterly 57 (4):698712.Google Scholar
Dreher, Axel, Marchesi, Silvia, and Vreeland, James Raymond. 2008. The Political Economy of IMF Forecasts. Public Choice 137 (1–2):145171.Google Scholar
Easterly, William. 2006. The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Easterly, William. 2010. Democratic Accountability in Development: The Double Standard. Social Research 77 (4):10751104.Google Scholar
Easterly, William, and Williamson, Claudia R.. 2011. Rhetoric versus Reality: The Best and Worst of Aid Agency Practices. World Development 39 (11):19301949.Google Scholar
Eisensee, Thomas, and Strömberg, David. 2007. News Droughts, News Floods, and US Disaster Relief. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 122 (2):693728.Google Scholar
Esarey, Justin, and DeMeritt, Jacqueline. 2017. Political Context and the Consequences of Naming and Shaming for Human Rights Abuse. International Interactions 43 (4):589618.Google Scholar
Facchini, Giovanni, and Mayda, Anna Maria. 2009. Does the Welfare State Affect Individual Attitudes toward Immigrants? Evidence across Countries. The Review of Economics and Statistics 91 (2):295314.Google Scholar
Fariss, Christopher J. 2010. The Strategic Substitution of United States Foreign Aid. Foreign Policy Analysis 6 (2):107131.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D. 1998. Domestic Politics, Foreign Policy, and Theories of International Relations. Annual Review of Political Science 1:289313.Google Scholar
Finkel, Steven E., Pérez-Liñán, Anıbal, and Seligson, Mitchell A.. 2007. The Effects of US Foreign Assistance on Democracy Building, 1990–2003. World Politics 59 (3):404438.Google Scholar
Fleck, Robert K., and Kilby, Christopher. 2001. Foreign Aid and Domestic Politics: Voting in Congress and the Allocation of USAID Contracts across Congressional Districts. Southern Economic Journal 67 (3):598617.Google Scholar
Flores-Macıas, Gustavo A., and Kreps, Sarah E.. 2017. Borrowing Support for War: The Effect of War Finance on Public Attitudes toward Conflict. Journal of Conflict Resolution 61 (5):9971020.Google Scholar
Franchino, Fabio, and Zucchini, Francesco. 2015. Voting in a Multi-Dimensional Space: A Conjoint Analysis Employing Valence and Ideology Attributes of Candidates. Political Science Research and Methods 3 (2):221241.Google Scholar
Gampfer, Robert, Bernauer, Thomas, and Kachi, Aya. 2014. Obtaining Public Support for North-South Climate Funding: Evidence from Conjoint Experiments in Donor Countries. Global Environmental Change 29:118126.Google Scholar
Garcia, Blake E., and Geva, Nehemia. 2016. Security Versus Liberty in the Context of Counterterrorism: An Experimental Approach. Terrorism and Political Violence 28 (1):3048.Google Scholar
Hafner-Burton, Emilie M., Hyde, Susan D., and Jablonski, Ryan S.. 2014. When Do Governments Resort to Election Violence? British Journal of Political Science 44 (1):149179.Google Scholar
Haidt, Jonathan, Graham, Jesse, and Joseph, Craig. 2009. Above and BelowLeft–Right: Ideological Narratives and Moral Foundations. Psychological Inquiry 20 (2–3):110119.Google Scholar
Hainmueller, Jens. 2011. Entropy Balancing for Causal Effects: A Multivariate Reweighting Method to Produce Balanced Samples in Observational Studies. Political Analysis 20 (1):2546.Google Scholar
Hainmueller, Jens, and Hopkins, Daniel J.. 2015. The Hidden American Immigration Consensus: A Conjoint Analysis of Attitudes toward Immigrants. American Journal of Political Science 59 (3):529548.Google Scholar
Hainmueller, Jens, Hopkins, Daniel J., and Yamamoto, Teppei. 2014. Causal Inference in Conjoint Analysis: Understanding Multidimensional Choices via Stated Preference Experiments. Political Analysis 22 (1):130.Google Scholar
Hainmueller, Jens, Hangartner, Dominik, and Yamamoto, Teppei. 2015. Validating Vignette and Conjoint Survey Experiments against Real-World Behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112 (8):23952400.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Stuart Edward, and Stankwitz, Clare. 2012. Examining the Relationship between International Aid and Mangrove Deforestation in Coastal Ecuador from 1970 to 2006. Journal of Land Use Science 7 (2):177202.Google Scholar
Harden, Jeffrey J. 2011. A Bootstrap Method for Conducting Statistical Inference with Clustered Data. State Politics & Policy Quarterly 11 (2):223246.Google Scholar
Hays, Jude C., Ehrlich, Sean D., and Peinhardt, Clint. 2005. Government Spending and Public Support for Trade in the OECD: An Empirical Test of the Embedded Liberalism Thesis. International Organization 59 (2):473494.Google Scholar
Heinrich, Tobias, and Loftis, Matt W.. Forthcoming. Democracy Aid and Electoral Accountability. Journal of Conflict Resolution.Google Scholar
Heinrich, Tobias, and Yoshiharu, Kobayashi. 2017. Replication Data for: How Do People Evaluate Foreign Aid to ‘Nasty’ Regimes? doi: 10.7910/DVN/TKTN5J, Harvard Dataverse, V1.Google Scholar
Heinrich, Tobias. 2013. When is Foreign Aid Selfish, When is it Selfless? The Journal of Politics 75 (2):422435.Google Scholar
Heinrich, Tobias, Kobayashi, Yoshiharu, and Bryant, Kristin A.. 2016. Public Opinion and Foreign Aid Cuts in Economic Crises. World Development 77:6679.Google Scholar
Heinrich, Tobias, Kobayashi, Yoshiharu, and Long, Leah. Forthcoming. Voters Get What They Want (When They Pay Attention): Human Rights, Policy Benefits, and Foreign Aid. International Studies Quarterly.Google Scholar
Heinrich, Tobias, Kobayashi, Yoshiharu, and Peterson, Timothy M.. 2017. Sanction Consequences and Citizen Support: A Survey Experiment. International Studies Quarterly 61 (1):98106.Google Scholar
Huff, Conor, and Tingley, Dustin. 2015. Who Are These People? Evaluating the Demographic Characteristics and Political Preferences of MTurk Survey Respondents. Research & Politics 2 (3):112.Google Scholar
Hyde, Susan, and Boulding, Carew. 2005. Political Terror, Election Fraud, and Foreign Aid: When Do Donors Withdraw Aid to Promote Democracy? Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, 8 April, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Jentleson, Bruce W. 1992. The Pretty Prudent Public: Post Post-Vietnam American Opinion on the Use of Military Force. International Studies Quarterly 36 (1):4974.Google Scholar
Johns, Robert, and Davies, Graeme AM. 2014. Coalitions of the Willing? International Backing and British Public Support for Military Action. Journal of Peace Research 51 (6):767781.Google Scholar
Kertzer, Joshua D., Powers, Kathleen E., Rathbun, Brian C., and Iyer, Ravi. 2014. Moral Support: How Moral Values Shape Foreign Policy Attitudes. The Journal of Politics 76 (3):825840.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Tomz, Michael, and Wittenberg, Jason. 2000. Making the Most of Statistical Analyses: Improving Interpretation and Presentation. American Journal of Political Science 44 (2):347361.Google Scholar
Kono, Daniel Y., and Montinola, Gabriella R.. 2009. Does Foreign Aid Support Autocrats, Democrats, or Both? The Journal of Politics 71 (2):704718.Google Scholar
Koremenos, Barbara, Lipson, Charles, and Snidal, Duncan. 2001. The Rational Design of International Institutions. International Organization 55 (4):761799.Google Scholar
Levy, Jack S. 1988. Domestic Politics and War. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 18 (4):653673.Google Scholar
Lewis, Andrew R., Djupe, Paul A., Mockabee, Stephen T., and Wu, Joshua Su-Ya. 2015. The (Non) Religion of Mechanical Turk Workers. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 54 (2):419428.Google Scholar
Licht, Amanda A. 2010. Coming into Money: The Impact of Foreign Aid on Leader Survival. Journal of Conflict Resolution 54 (1):5887.Google Scholar
Mavrotas, George. 2005. Aid Heterogeneity: Looking at Aid Effectiveness From a Different Angle. Journal of International Development 17 (8):10191036.Google Scholar
McCormick, James M., and Mitchell, Neil. 1988. Is US Aid Really Linked to Human Rights in Latin America? American Journal of Political Science 32 (1):231239.Google Scholar
McKinlay, Robert D., and Little, Richard. 1977. A Foreign Policy Model of US Bilateral Aid Allocation. World Politics 30 (1):5886.Google Scholar
McLean, Elena V. 2012. Donors’ Preferences and Agent Choice: Delegation of European Development Aid. International Studies Quarterly 56 (2):381395.Google Scholar
McLean, Elena V.. 2015. A Strategic Theory of International Environmental Assistance. Journal of Theoretical Politics 27 (2):324347.Google Scholar
Milner, Helen V. 2006. Why Multilateralism? Foreign Aid and Domestic Principal-Agent Problems. In Delegation and Agency in International Organizations, edited by D. G. Hawkins, D. A. Lake, D. L. Nielson and M. J. Tierney, 107139. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Milner, Helen V., and Tingley, Dustin. 2013. The Choice for Multilateralism: Foreign Aid and American Foreign Policy. The Review of International Organizations 8 (3):313341.Google Scholar
Milner, Helen V., and Tingley, Dustin. 2015. Sailing the Water’s Edge: The Domestic Politics of American Foreign Policy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Most, Benjamin A., and Starr, Harvey. 1989. Inquiry, Logic, and International Politics. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Moyo, Dambisa. 2009. Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Mullinix, Kevin J., Leeper, Thomas J., Druckman, James N., and Freese, Jeremy. 2015. The Generalizability of Survey Experiments. Journal of Experimental Political Science 2 (2):109138.Google Scholar
Neumayer, Eric. 2005. The Pattern of Aid Giving: The Impact of Good Governance on Development Assistance. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Richard A. 2013. Rewarding Human Rights? Selective Aid Sanctions Against Repressive States. International Studies Quarterly 57 (4):791803.Google Scholar
Noël, Alain, and Thérien, Jean-Philippe. 2002. Public Opinion and Global Justice. Comparative Political Studies 35 (6):631656.Google Scholar
Palmer, Glenn, and Morgan, T. Clifton. 2006. A Theory of Foreign Policy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Paxton, Pamela, and Knack, Stephen. 2012. Individual and Country-Level Factors Affecting Support for Foreign Aid. International Political Science Review 33 (2):171192.Google Scholar
Peksen, Dursun, Peterson, Timothy M., and Drury, A. Cooper. 2014. Media-Driven Humanitarianism? News Media Coverage of Human Rights Abuses and the Use of Economic Sanctions. International Studies Quarterly 58 (4):855866.Google Scholar
Poe, Steven C., Tate, C. Neal, and Keith, Linda Camp. 1999. Repression of the Human Right to Personal Integrity Revisited: A Global Cross-National Study Covering the Years 1976-1993. International Studies Quarterly 43 (3):291313.Google Scholar
Qian, Nancy, and Yanagizawa, David. 2009. The Strategic Determinants of US Human Rights Reporting: Evidence from the Cold War. Journal of the European Economic Association 7 (2–3):446457.Google Scholar
Reinsberg, Bernhard. 2015. Foreign Aid Responses to Political Liberalization. World Development 75:4661.Google Scholar
Remmer, Karen L. 2004. Does Foreign Aid Promote the Expansion of Government? American Journal of Political Science 48 (1):7792.Google Scholar
Roodman, David. 2004. The Commitment to Development Index. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development.Google Scholar
Sachs, Jeffrey. 2006. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Scheve, Kenneth F., and Slaughter, Matthew J.. 2001a. Labor Market Competition and Individual Preferences over Immigration Policy. Review of Economics and Statistics 83 (1):133145.Google Scholar
Scheve, Kenneth F., and Slaughter, Matthew J.. 2001b. What Determines Individual Trade-Policy Preferences? Journal of International Economics 54 (2):267292.Google Scholar
Schraeder, Peter J., Hook, Steven W., and Taylor, Bruce. 1998. Clarifying the Foreign Aid Puzzle: A Comparison of American, Japanese, French, and Swedish Aid Flows. World Politics 50 (2):294323.Google Scholar
Schudel, Carl Jan Willem. 2008. Corruption and Bilateral aid: A Dyadic Approach. Journal of Conflict Resolution 52 (4):507526.Google Scholar
Scott, James M., and Steele, Carie A.. 2011. Sponsoring Democracy: The United States and Democracy Aid to the Developing World, 1988–2001. International Studies Quarterly 55 (1):4769.Google Scholar
Smith, Alastair. 1996. Diversionary Foreign Policy in Democratic Systems. International Studies Quarterly 40 (1):133153.Google Scholar
Tanaka, Seiki. 2016. The Microfoundations of Territorial Disputes: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Japan. Conflict Management and Peace Science 33 (5):516538.Google Scholar
Tierney, Michael J., Nielson, Daniel L., Hawkins, Darren G., Roberts, J. Timmons, Findley, Michael G., Powers, Ryan M., Parks, Bradley, Wilson, Sven E., and Hicks, Robert L.. 2011. More Dollars than Sense: Refining our Knowledge of Development Finance Using AidData. World Development 39 (11):18911906.Google Scholar
Tomz, Michael R., and Weeks, Jessica L. P.. 2013. Public Opinion and the Democratic Peace. American Political Science Review 107 (4):849865.Google Scholar
Treisman, Daniel. 2007. What Have We Learned About the Causes of Corruption from Ten Years of Cross-National Empirical Research? Annual Review of Political Science 10:211244.Google Scholar
Tversky, Amos, and Kahneman, Daniel. 1981. The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice. Science 211 (4481):453458.Google Scholar
Van Belle, Douglas A., Rioux, Jean-Sebastien, and Potter, David M.. 2004. Media, Bureaucracies, and Foreign Aid: A Comparative Analysis of United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Japan. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Van der Veen, A. Maurits. 2011. Ideas, Interests, and Foreign Aid. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vavreck, Lynn, and Rivers, Douglas. 2008. The 2006 Cooperative Congressional Election Study. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties 18 (4):355366.Google Scholar
Wang, Wei, Rothschild, David, Goel, Sharad, and Gelman, Andrew. 2015. Forecasting Elections with Non-Representative Polls. International Journal of Forecasting 31 (3):980991.Google Scholar
Winters, Matthew S. 2010. Accountability, Participation and Foreign Aid Effectiveness. International Studies Review 12 (2):218243.Google Scholar
Winters, Matthew S., and Martinez, Gina. 2015. The Role of Governance in Determining Foreign Aid Flow Composition. World Development 66:516531.Google Scholar
Wright, Joseph. 2009. How Foreign Aid Can Foster Democratization in Authoritarian Regimes. American Journal of Political Science 53 (3):552571.Google Scholar
Zaller, John. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Heinrich and Kobayashi supplementary material

Web Appendix

Download Heinrich and Kobayashi supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 151.2 KB
Supplementary material: Link

Heinrich and Kobayashi Dataset

Link