In response to corruption and inefficient state institutions in recipient countries, some foreign aid donors outsource the delivery of aid to nonstate development actors. Other donor governments ...continue to support state management of aid, seeking to strengthen recipient states. These cross-donor differences can be attributed in large measure to different national orientations about the appropriate role of the state in public service delivery. Countries that place a high premium on market efficiency (for example, the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden) will outsource aid delivery in poorly governed recipient countries to improve the likelihood that aid reaches the intended beneficiaries of services. In contrast, states whose political economies emphasize a strong state in service provision (for example, France, Germany, Japan) continue to support state provision. This argument is borne out by a variety of tests, including statistical analysis of dyadic time-series cross-section aid allocation data and individual-level survey data on a cross-national sample of senior foreign aid officials. To understand different aid policies, one needs to understand the political economies of donors.
Does the “shaming” of human rights violations influence foreign aid delivery decisions across OECD donor countries? We examine the effect of shaming, defined as targeted negative attention by human ...rights international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), on donor decisions about how to deliver bilateral aid. We argue that INGO shaming of recipient countries leads donor governments, on average, to “bypass” the recipient government in favor of non-state aid delivery channels, including international and local NGOs and international organizations (IOs). However, we expect this relationship to be conditional on a donor country’s position in the international system. Minor power countries have limited influence in global affairs and are therefore more able to centrally promote human rights in their foreign policy. Major power countries, on the other hand, shape world politics and often confront “realpolitik” concerns that may require government-to-government aid relations in the presence of INGO shaming. We thus expect aid officials of minor donor countries to be more likely to condition aid delivery decisions on human rights shaming than their counterparts of major donor countries. Using compositional data analysis, we test our argument using originally collected data on human rights shaming events and an originally constructed measure of bilateral aid delivery in a time-series cross-sectional framework from 2004 to 2010. We find support for our hypotheses: On average, OECD donor governments increase the proportion of bypass when INGOs shame the recipient government. When differentiating between donor types we find that this finding holds for minor but not for major powers. These results add to both our understanding of the influences of aid allocation decision-making and our understanding of the role of INGOs on foreign-policy.
The conventional wisdom in the literature on aid allocation suggests that donors utilize bilateral aid as a tool to buy influence in the aid-receiving country. Those who conclude that aid is driven ...by donor self-interest focus on government-to-government aid transfers. However, this approach overlooks important variation in delivery tactics: Bilateral donors frequently provide aid to nonstate actors. This paper argues that donors resort to delivery tactics that increase the likelihood of aid achieving its intended outcome. In poorly governed recipient countries, donors bypass recipient governments and deliver more aid through nonstate actors, all else equal. In recipient countries with higher governance quality, donors engage the government and give more aid through the government-to-government channel. Using OLS and Probit regressions, I find empirical support for this argument. Understanding the determinants of donor delivery tactics has important implications for assessing aid effectiveness.
Over the past two decades, donors increasingly link foreign aid to democracy objectives in Africa. This study investigates whether and how foreign aid influences specific outcomes associated with ...democratic transition and consolidation. Using an instrumental variables approach for the period from 1989 to 2008, we show that economic aid increases the likelihood of transition to multiparty politics, while democracy aid furthers democratic consolidation by reducing the incidence of multiparty failure and electoral misconduct. However, we find little evidence that either economic or democracy aid influences opposition support in multiparty elections. These findings have implications for understanding how donors allocate aid and the political consequences of foreign assistance in Africa.
Conventional wisdom suggests that foreign aid is more effective in less corrupt states. Recently, however, research is emerging that suggests that this argument may be too broad and that the effect ...of governance on aid effectiveness is masked by the study of aggregate aid flows. I focus on the public health sector and develop an argument of strategic compliance: corrupt recipient governments have incentives to comply with donor objectives but they will do so in aid sectors, in which compliance is cheap. I use two-step Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) as my primary estimation technique. I find strong and robust evidence for my argument.
Data protection protects citizens against misuse of their personal data. In particular, technological developments and the associated automation of data collection and processing require the revision ...of existing data protection regulation. Against the background of the revision of the Swiss Data Protection Act, this article looks at data protection at various levels. At the state level, it is primarily a question of legislation that is intended to guarantee the protection of citizens› data. However, there is little evidence about what is important to Swiss citizens in the context of data protection. With the help of an online survey of 500 people in Switzerland, the article therefore investigates what data protection means at the citizen level and which aspects cause concern to the respondents. The results show that the respondents place a high value on the protection of their privacy. They also have concerns about the possible misuse of their data. At the same time, they are not sufficiently familiar with the legal situation underlying data protection. These results emphasize the importance of appropriate communication and media coverage of the introduction of the new Data Protection Act in Switzerland. For the state and state organizations, this implies that in addition to adapting the Data Protection Act, efforts should also be made to inform the population about the legislation in a more targeted and transparent manner. This can help individuals to be more cautious in handling and providing personal data due to better knowledge and thus better protect their personal data. Abstrakt Datenschutz gewährt Bürgerinnen und Bürgern Schutz vor missbräuchlicher Verwendung ihrer persönlichen Daten. Insbesondere technologische Entwicklungen und die damit einhergehende Automatisierung von Datenerfassung und -verarbeitung erfordern die Überarbeitung bestehender Datenschutzgesetze. Vor dem Hintergrund der Revision des Datenschutzgesetzes in der Schweiz betrachtet der vorliegende Artikel den Datenschutz auf verschiedenen Ebenen. Auf staatlicher Ebene geht es primär um die Gesetzgebung, die den Schutz der Daten von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern gewährleisten soll. Darüber, was für Schweizer Bürgerinnen und Bürger im Kontext von Datenschutz wichtig ist, liegt jedoch wenig Evidenz vor. Mithilfe einer Online-Befragung von 500 Personen in der deutschsprachigen Schweiz untersucht der Artikel deshalb, was Datenschutz auf der Individualebene bedeutet und welche Aspekte den Befragten Bedenken bereiten. Die Resultate zeigen, dass die befragten Personen der Gewährleistung ihrer Privatsphäre hohen Wert beimessen. Ausserdem haben sie Bedenken im Hinblick auf einen möglichen Missbrauch ihrer Daten. Gleichzeitig sind sie nicht unzureichend vertraut mit der datenschutzrechtlichen Gesetzeslage. Diese Resultate zeigen auf, welche Bedeutung einer angemessenen Kommunikation und medialen Berichterstattung bei der Einführung des neuen Datenschutzgesetzes in der Schweiz zukommt. Für den Staat und staatliche Organisationen impliziert dies, dass neben der Anpassung des Datenschutzgesetzes auch Anstrengungen unternommen werden sollten, die Bevölkerung hinsichtlich dieser Gesetzesänderung und der Verwendung von Daten zielgerichteter und transparenter zu informieren. Auf diese Weise kann der Staat dazu beitragen, dass sich Bürgerinnen und Bürger aufgrund besserer Kenntnisse vorsichtiger im Umgang und der Bereitstellung persönlicher Daten verhalten und damit ihre persönlichen Daten besser schützen können. Résumé La protection des données offre aux citoyens une protection contre l’utilisation abusive de leurs données personnelles. En particulier, les développements technologiques et l’automatisation de la collecte et du traitement des données qui en découle nécessitent la révision des lois existantes sur la protection des données. Dans le contexte de la révision de la loi fédérale sur la protection des données en Suisse, cet article examine la protection des données à différents niveaux. Au niveau de l’État, c’est avant tout une question de législation qui vise à garantir la protection des données des citoyens. Cependant, il existe peu de données sur ce qui est important pour les citoyens suisses dans le contexte de la protection des données. À l’aide d’une enquête en ligne menée auprès de 500 personnes en Suisse, l’article examine donc ce que signifie la protection des données au niveau des citoyens et quels aspects préoccupent les personnes interrogées. Les résultats montrent que les personnes interrogées attachent une grande importance à la garantie de leur vie privée. Ils s’inquiètent également d’une éventuelle utilisation abusive de leurs données. En même temps, ils n’ont pas un niveau uniformément élevé de connaissance de la situation juridique qui sous-tend la protection des données. Ces résultats soulignent l’importance d’une communication et d’une couverture médiatique appropriées de l’introduction de la nouvelle loi sur la protection des données en Suisse. Pour l’Etat et les organisations étatiques, cela implique qu’outre l’adaptation de la loi sur la protection des données, des efforts doivent également être faits pour informer la population sur la législation de manière plus ciblée et plus transparente. Cela peut aider les individus à être plus prudents dans la manipulation et la fourniture de données personnelles grâce à une meilleure connaissance, et donc à mieux protéger leurs données personnelles. Schlüsselwörter: Datenschutz; Schweiz; Onlinebefragung; Datenschutzgesetz Mots-clés: Protection des données; Suisse; enquête en ligne; loi sur la protection des données
Vor dem Hintergrund von knappen Ressourcen und gestiegenen Kundenerwartungen müssen sich auch Verwaltungen auf subnationaler Ebene in der Schweiz im Zuge der Digitalisierung mit den Herausforderungen ...von Smart Government auseinandersetzen. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht anhand einer qualitativen Literaturanalyse die relevanten Einflussfaktoren für eine erfolgreiche Entwicklung von Smart Government in der Schweiz. Die Befunde zeigen, dass neben technologischen, wirtschaftlichen und institutionellen Faktoren insbesondere auch soziale Faktoren wie das Vertrauen der Bevölkerung in den Staat und in neue Technologien, die Inklusion von Bürgern sowie die vertikale und horizontale Kooperation zwischen Verwaltungsebenen eine wichtige Rolle für die Umsetzung von Smart Government spielen.
How does information about the presence of foreign financing in a development project change people’s perceptions of that project? Using an informational experiment in Bangladesh, we find that ...information about US financing of a specific development intervention sends a positive signal about project quality; this effect is concentrated among individuals who are the least likely to have been exposed to the information ex ante. The information does not change the already high demand for foreign aid but does help citizens target their demands toward the existing donor. That foreign funding can be a signal of project quality helps explain an existing finding in the literature that individuals prefer foreign aid projects to government projects.
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