Aid And Political Conditionality

Foreign aid has increasingly been subject to political conditionality. In the 1980s, the Bretton Woods institutions and major Western governments made aid dependent on reforms of the economic policy of recipient countries. The main objective of this first generation conditionality was to bring balance in their internal and external economy. Market liberalisation was the primary instrument, if not an objective in its own right. In the 1990s, first generation conditionality, characterised by its structural adjustment programmes, was brought one step further. With the old bipolar world system breaking down, political conditionality of a different brand came out in the open. This second generation conditionality linked aid to political reforms which even involved the governing system at the recipient side: democracy, human rights and 'good governance'. This volume aims at taking stock of these developments. The volume emerges from a research project carried out within the framework of the Working Group on Aid Policy and Performance of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI). It will be of considerable interest to researchers and university teachers in the field of development studies, and of particular interest to politicians and administrators at all levels concerned with development assistance, in providing an overview of the state of the art of the most topical aid policy issue of the 1990s.

Foreign aid has increasingly become subject to political conditionality. In the 1980s some institutions made aid dependent upon the recipient countries' economic policy reforms. Market liberalisation was the primary instrument and objective. In the 1990s such conditionality was brought one step further; aid was now linked to political reforms, affecting recipient countries' governing systems, requiring democracy, human rights and 'good governance'. This volume looks at these developments and considers the conditionality policies of several European aid donors. Such policies are also considered from recipient perspectives, both from the Third World and Russia, and the issue is also considered from a historical perspective.