IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jocore/v68y2024i7-8p1358-1386.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bureaucracy at the Border: The Fragmentation of United States Foreign Aid

Author

Listed:
  • Shannon P. Carcelli

Abstract

Foreign policy scholars often assume that leaders pursue a national interest. However, states often spread their foreign policy authority thinly across bureaucracies and programs with overlapping or conflicting interests. This is especially pronounced in foreign aid, which serves a clear foreign policy purpose but is often mired in bureaucracy. Why is foreign aid often so fragmented? Focusing on the United States, I explain foreign aid fragmentation as a byproduct of domestic politics. When moderate legislators are ideologically diffuse, leadership must persuade them to support a foreign aid agenda by offering pet projects. This increases aid’s fragmentation. In contrast, when moderates are relatively homogeneous, leaders can gather support through more traditional compromise, decreasing the need for fragmented pet projects. I test this theory using a mixed-methods approach, employing a novel agency-level dataset of US foreign aid appropriations and a case study of a 1992 act delivering aid to the former Soviet Union.

Suggested Citation

  • Shannon P. Carcelli, 2024. "Bureaucracy at the Border: The Fragmentation of United States Foreign Aid," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 68(7-8), pages 1358-1386, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:68:y:2024:i:7-8:p:1358-1386
    DOI: 10.1177/00220027231198176
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00220027231198176
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00220027231198176?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreas Fuchs & Peter Nunnenkamp & Hannes Öhler, 2015. "Why Donors of Foreign Aid Do Not Coordinate: The Role of Competition for Export Markets and Political Support," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 255-285, February.
    2. Axel Dreher & Sarah Langlotz, 2020. "Aid and growth: New evidence using an excludable instrument," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(3), pages 1162-1198, August.
    3. Dietrich,Simone, 2021. "States, Markets, and Foreign Aid," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781009001755, January.
    4. Dietrich,Simone, 2021. "States, Markets, and Foreign Aid," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781316519202, January.
    5. Dreher, Axel & Lang, Valentin & Rosendorff, B. Peter & Vreeland, James Raymond, 2018. "Buying Votes and International Organizations: The Dirty Work-Hypothesis," CEPR Discussion Papers 13290, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Margaret Ariotti & Simone Dietrich & Joseph Wright, 2022. "Foreign aid and judicial autonomy," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 691-715, October.
    2. Dreher, Axel & Lang, Valentin & Reinsberg, Bernhard, 2024. "Aid effectiveness and donor motives," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    3. Nathalie Ferrière, 2016. "To give or not to give? How do donors react to European food aid allocation?," Working Papers halshs-01405130, HAL.
    4. Bernhard Reinsberg & Daniel O Shaw & Louis Bujnoch, 2024. "Revisiting the security–development nexus: Human security and the effects of IMF adjustment programmes," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 41(1), pages 72-95, January.
    5. Cruzatti C., John & Dreher, Axel & Matzat, Johannes, 2023. "Chinese aid and health at the country and local level," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    6. Corwin, Hillary, 2023. "Coercive and catalytic strategies for human rights promotion: State violence and foreign assistance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    7. Heinzel, Mirko & Reinsberg, Bernhard, 2024. "Trust funds and the sub-national effectiveness of development aid: Evidence from the World Bank," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    8. Cheeseman, Nic & Swedlund, Haley J. & O'Brien-Udry, Cleo, 2024. "Foreign aid withdrawals and suspensions: Why, when and are they effective?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    9. Peter Nunnenkamp & Albena Sotirova & Rainer Thiele, 2016. "Do Aid Donors Specialize and Coordinate within Recipient Countries? The case of Malawi," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 34(6), pages 831-849, November.
    10. Alessandro De Matteis, 2018. "Follow the leader! The peer effect in aid supply decisions," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(6), pages 631-648, October.
    11. Nimonka Bayale, 2018. "Aide et Croissance dans les pays de l’Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA) : retour sur une relation controversée," Working Papers hal-01765313, HAL.
    12. Iliana Olivié & Aitor Pérez, 2016. "Why don’t donor countries coordinate their aid? A case study of European donors in Morocco," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 16(1), pages 52-64, January.
    13. Yu Ri Kim, 2019. "Does aid for trade diversify the export structure of recipient countries?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(9), pages 2684-2722, September.
    14. Eichenauer, Vera Z. & Fuchs, Andreas & Brueckner, Lutz, 2018. "The Effects of Trade, Aid, and Investment on China's Image in Developing Countries," Working Papers 0646, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    15. Katharina Michaelowa & Axel Michaelowa & Bernhard Reinsberg & Igor Shishlov, 2020. "Do Multilateral Development Bank Trust Funds Allocate Climate Finance Efficiently?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-19, July.
    16. Kaya, Ayse & Kilby, Christopher & Kay, Jonathan, 2021. "Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as an instrument for Chinese influence? Supplementary versus remedial multilateralism," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    17. Maria Perrotta Berlin & Raj M. Desai & Anders Olofsgård, 2023. "Trading favors? UN Security Council membership and subnational favoritism in aid recipients," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 237-258, April.
    18. dagher, leila & Nassar, fadi nicolas, 2023. "Lessons Learned from the Beirut Port Explosion," MPRA Paper 119404, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Suzuki, Mao, 2020. "Profits before patients? Analyzing donors’ economic motives for foreign aid in the health sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    20. Martin Sjöstedt & Aksel Sundström, 2017. "Donor co-ordination or donor confusion? How disputed facts and problem framing affect the prospects for aid harmonization," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35, pages 64-79, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:68:y:2024:i:7-8:p:1358-1386. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.