‘Does it Work?’ – Work for Whom? Britain and Political Conditionality since the Cold War

Jonathan Fisher

World Development, 2015, vol. 75, issue C, 13-25

Abstract: Evaluations of the political conditionality (PC) phenomenon have long focused on the question of instrumental efficacy – whether PC promotes policy reform in developing states. Evidence from the UK nevertheless suggests that this emphasis is misplaced and that donor officials increasingly use PC for ‘expressive’ reasons – to signal their putative commitment to delivering ‘value for money’ in a difficult international economic climate. This shift in rationale raises important questions; not least, what do we know about the effects of PC on public perceptions of aid and to what extent, within this dispensation, can contemporary PC be viewed as a ‘success’?

Keywords: political conditionality; Africa; DFID; donors; domestic politics of aid (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:75:y:2015:i:c:p:13-25

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.12.005

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