‘Does it work?’ – work for whom? Britain and political conditionality since the Cold War

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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’?
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)13–25
JournalWorld Development
Volume75
Early online date12 Jan 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2015

Keywords

  • political conditionality
  • Africa
  • DFID
  • donors
  • domestic politics of aid

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