Human Rights Violations, Political Conditionality and Public Attitudes to Foreign Aid: Evidence from Survey Experiments.

There has been much criticism of donor governments who give aid to states that violate human rights. This has fuelled concerns about how such coverage affects public support for foreign aid. In response, donors increasingly use aid suspensions to signal to domestic audiences that a regime has been s...

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Published in:Political Studies Vol. 70; no. 3; pp. 603 - 624
Main Authors: Dasandi, Niheer, Fisher, Jonathan, Hudson, David, vanHeerde-Hudson, Jennifer
Format: Article
Published: Sage Publications Inc. Aug2022
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Aug2022
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        atl: Human Rights Violations, Political Conditionality and Public Attitudes to Foreign Aid: Evidence from Survey Experiments.
      aug:
        au:
          Dasandi, Niheer
          Fisher, Jonathan
          Hudson, David
          vanHeerde-Hudson, Jennifer
        affil:
          International Development Department (IDD), University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
          Department of Political Science, University College London (UCL), London, UK
      su:
        International economic assistance
        Human rights violations
        International relations
        Public support
        Political attitudes
        Public opinion
      sug:
        subj:
          International economic assistance
          Human rights violations
          International relations
          Public support
          Political attitudes
          Public opinion
          International Affairs
          Administration of General Economic Programs
          International assistance
          Foreign affairs
          Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling
      keyword:
        foreign aid
        human rights
        international development
        political conditionality
        public attitudes
        foreign aid
        human rights
        international development
        political conditionality
        public attitudes
      ab: There has been much criticism of donor governments who give aid to states that violate human rights. This has fuelled concerns about how such coverage affects public support for foreign aid. In response, donors increasingly use aid suspensions to signal to domestic audiences that a regime has been sanctioned and aid is not misspent. This article examines how reports of rights violations affect attitudes to aid and what, if any, impact donor responses have on public perceptions. We conduct survey experiments using nationally representative samples of the British public. Our findings demonstrate that reports of rights abuses reduce public support for aid. However, contrary to conventional wisdom, any response from donors, whether it be to justify continuing aid or to cut aid, prevents a decline in support. In policy terms, the findings demonstrate the importance of government responsiveness in maintaining public support for a frequently contested aspect of foreign policy.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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