3.3 The Framework as a Methodological Device
3.3.2 Domestic Factors
Domestic Political Contestation
One of the more productive lines of enquiry within the determinants of aid literature in recent times is scholarship that seeks to isolate and understand the aid policy impact of a single domestic actor or institution, such as the media or legislatures78. A common desire links these
ventures: to better understand how, and to what extent, a certain actor or group can access and influence the aid decisionmaking process79. Accordingly, the framework assumes that
contestation amongst the domestic actors that seek to access to influence the political process has the potential to shape aid policy decisionmaking. When considering domestic political contestation, the influence of the development constituency and the aid policy system are likely to be especially important.
76 Relevant publications include Kaarbo (1996, 2008, 2013), Kaarbo and Beasley (2008; 2014), Kaarbo and Lantis
(2003) and Cantir and Kaarbo (2012).
77 Kennedy (2012, 23), for example, advises that “one would naturally need to assess the views of a wider group of
individuals, while also considering the nuances of the particular decision-making process involved, in order to make useful predictions about foreign policy.”
78 Some of the key threads in the substantial domestic determinants of aid literature include those that, for
example, examine the impact of: the media’s role in influencing aid effort (Van Belle and Hook 2000; Van Belle 2003; Van Belle, Rioux, and Potter 2004; Lim, Barnett, and Kim 2008); the role of legislatures in aid allocation (Milner and Tingley 2010) the influence of partisan policy and ideology on aid (Thérien and Noël 2000; Thérien 2002a; Fleck and Kilby 2006; Tingley 2010; Brech and Potrafke 2014); the role of interest groups— particularly NGOs (Kim 2014) and business (Lundsgaarde 2013, 194); and the role of public opinion on aid (D. Hudson and vanHeerde- Hudson 2012a; Milner and Tingley 2013)78. Yet despite considerable advancements in understanding the role of
these factors and others— particularly since the turn of the millennium—it remains the case that the “domestic politics of foreign aid decision-making... remain poorly understood” (Lightfoot and Szent-Iványi 2015, 13).
79 For a theoretical discussion on access to the policy process in the context of aid policy, see Lundsgaarde (2013,
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Research is increasingly highlighting how the composition, character, and relative influence of the development constituency in each state flavours its aid policy80. Horký and Lightfoot (2012,
17) define a ‘development constituency’ as “the network of actors active in shaping and/or implementing development cooperation programs” in a given country. In adopting this definition for use in this thesis, I also include development NGOs, such as CARE, Oxfam, and World Vision, to comprise part of the development constituency.
The aid policy system refers to the institutional setting within which aid policy decisionmaking occurs81. These institutional arrangements for aid management and oversight will vary in each
donor state, with implications for which actors are able to gain access to the aid policy decisionmaking process and how they are able to do so82. These institutional arrangements will
also determine how key decision units responsible for aid policy are constituted. Bureaucratic politics can also be expected to influence the course and outcome of an aid policy decisionmaking episode. Various institutional arrangements to consider when reconstructing the dynamics of an aid policymaking decision include: the place where “the main government actor with a development mandate” (Lundsgaarde 2013, 191) sits; the extent to which the legislature is engaged in, and informed about, development issues (Lancaster 2007b, 219–20); how fragmented and decentralised the aid policy system (Lundsgaarde 2013, chapter 2); and “the relative power and interests of the bureaucracies involved” in aid policy (Lightfoot and Szent-Iványi 2015, 30)83.
National Identity
According to van der Veen (2011, 28), “national identity can be conceptualized as a basic worldview, combined with ideas about the type of national image a nation aspires to, as well as a sense of the values represented by the nation.” The determinants of aid literature shows that societal values are reflected in the aid giving behaviour of states, hence the framework assumes
80 In her study examining the domestic politics of aid in the United States, France, Denmark and Lancaster has
demonstrated the “importance of a constituency for development aid” in “carrying sizeable aid budgets forward” for considerable periods (Lancaster 2007a, 220). Horky and Lightfoot (2012, 8) reported similar findings in their study on focusing on new Central and Eastern European donors, “quantity of aid is directly related to the ability of the domestic development community to mobilize resources.” The unique character of a given development constituency also matters. For example, Lunsdgaarde (2013, 13), has documented how the “formal integration of the business community in the aid policy process” is a “striking feature of aid policymaking in Denmark”, ensuing that, while Denmark maintains high levels of aid expenditure, its aid policy is distinctly influenced by commercial objectives (Lancaster 2007, chapter 7). (The material in this footnote was also included in a similar discussion in Day (2016)).
81 While the exact language varies, all comparative aid policy scholars deploy a term that refers to the broad
institutional arrangements within which aid policy decisionmaking occurs. For example, Lancaster (2007a, 22) uses ‘aid organization’ rather than ‘aid policy system’.
82 A key finding of Lundsgaarde’s (2013, 196–97) is that institutions “determine the way that societal interests are
incorporated into the policymaking process” at the same time as structuring “the nature of competition between governmental actors by determining how policymaking authority is distributed among them”.
83 Key non-aid studies of bureaucratic politics include Allison (1969), Allison and Halperin (1972) and Halperin, Clapp
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Page73 that the way a state conceives of itself influences aid policy decionmaking. Stated another way, the way a given society answer the question ‘who are we?’ has implications for aid policy: a state’s internal priorities and attitudes can be expected to be reflected in their external priorities and attitudes. As Lumsdaine (1993, 22) explains, “[c]itizens and leaders who favour certain principles in domestic politics are more apt to approve their worth and see their usefulness in international affairs…”
One of two key ways the literature has sought to examine how national identity impacts aid policy relates to the way in which “welfare principles institutionalized at the domestic level shape the participation of developed countries in the international aid regime” (Noël and Thérien 1995, 523). The model developed by Thérien and Noël (2000, 160) confirmed the “the primacy of welfare state socialist attributes and government social spending in the explanation of development assistance policies”. Those societies that prioritise income redistribution at the national level—including, notably for aid, the Scandinavian countries—are more accepting of it at the international level and this is reflected in their propensity to give proportionally more aid. Aid giving behaviour can therefore be viewed as an extension of socio-political and cultural values of a society (Stokke 1989b, 278; Ball 2010).
A second important way national identity has been shown to impact aid policy is via the notion of national role conceptions84. Marijke Breuning, the scholar most closely associated with this
line of enquiry, has shown how “[d]ecision makers' perceptions of their state's role in the international environment form an important cue to the motivations and objectives that determine the policies they pursue” (Breuning 1995, 236). In her key 1995 study, which was based on her doctoral research (Breuning 1992), Breuning demonstrated that the aid policy behaviour of the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom largely fitted their respective ‘activist’, ‘merchant’ and ‘power broker’ role conceptions (Breuning 1995, 250)85. The fact that
states that are middle powers have tended to be amongst the leading donors reinforces the idea that the roles decisionmakers see their states as playing on the international stage guides decisionmakers when making aid policy (Breuning 1992, 241; Stokke 1989a). Breuning (1995, 237), does caution, however, that role conceptions may vary with respect to different issue
84 For general (i.e. non-aid specific) overviews of how national role conceptions impact foreign policy see Holsti
(1970) and Wish (1980).
85 Bruening’s doctoral thesis was titled National role conceptions and foreign assistance policy behavior: toward a
cognitive model (Breuning 1992). In a series of subsequent publications, Breuning (1995, 1998) continued to examine the relationship between national role conceptions and aid policy. In more recent times, Breuning’s research has expanded to examining the theoretical potential for role theory more generally (Thies and Breuning 2012).
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areas, suggesting that states will often exhibit a unique ‘aid identity’, with certain characteristics or preferences repeatedly emphasised over time.