Human rights and the distribution of U.S. foreign aid

Abrams, Burton A.; Lewis, Kenneth A.

doi:10.1007/bf01047996

Cited by 31 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, Theresa Kilbane, Senior Advisor of Child Protection at UNICEF (Kilbane ), revealed in an interview that even within UNICEF's very decentralized structure, in which each country's office has substantial latitude over the focus of its efforts, there has been an uptick in the number of countries choosing to focus on violent discipline. Numerous scholars have found that aid is associated with human rights outcomes, and aid is often allocated under certain conditions (Abrams & Lewis ). Organizations that provide aid also monitor their aid recipients, suggesting close ties to other countries and norms they propagate…”

Section: Results: Banning Corporal Punishmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Global Adoption of National Policies Protecting Children from Violent Discipline in Schools and Homes, 1950–2011

Brehm¹,

Boyle²

2018

Law Soc Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With a focus on the relationship between women's and children's rights and theories of globalization, we conduct an event history analysis of more than 150 countries between 1950 and 2011 to assess the factors associated with policies banning corporal punishment in schools and homes. Our research reveals that formal condemnation of corporal punishment in schools is becoming a global norm; policies banning corporal punishment in the home, in contrast, are being adopted more slowly. We find that the percentage of women in parliament is associated with the adoption of anti-corporal punishment policies in both schools and homes, suggesting a nexus between women's and children's issues. Countries with more ethnic diversity are slower to adopt home policies, however. We propose that groups in these countries may be resistant to laws because of the risk of selective or prejudicial enforcement. In terms of globalization, more aid is associated with both school and home policies, and countries that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child are more likely to adopt home policies. Surprisingly, international nongovernmental organizations are not significantly associated with either type of policy adoption.

show abstract

Section: Results: Banning Corporal Punishmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Global Adoption of National Policies Protecting Children from Violent Discipline in Schools and Homes, 1950–2011

Brehm¹,

Boyle²

2018

Law Soc Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Interest in the effect of ''good governance'' on aid allocation is of a more recent nature, even though McKinlay and Little (1977) already tested for the effect of political stability and democracy on aid allocation. Most of the existing literature has focused on the case of U.S. foreign aid allocation, particularly with respect to the role of political and civil rights and personal integrity rights, where the latter refer to freedom from political imprisonment, torture, disappearance, violence, and political murder (Cingranelli and Pasquarello, 1985;Carleton and Stohl, 1987;Poe, 1992;Abrams and Lewis, 1993;Poe and Sirirangsi, 1994;Poe, Pilatovsky, Miller, and Ogundele, 1994;Apodaca and Stohl, 1999). 2 These studies differ of course in their results from each other, and sometimes substantially so, due to different data sets, different time periods looked at, different estimation techniques used.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Determinants of Aid Allocation by Regional Multilateral Development Banks and United Nations Agencies

2003

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper examines which factors can explain the allocation of aid by four regional development banks as well as three United Nations agencies. The results suggest the following: most donors examined also exhibit a bias apparent in bilateral aid allocation in favor of less populous countries. Some of them also share another bias of bilateral donors who give more aid to their former colonies. However, the three United Nations agencies contravene a third bias of bilateral aid allocation and provide more aid to countries geographically more distant from the centers of the Western world. While the regional development banks with the possible exception of the Inter‐American one focus exclusively on economic need as measured by per capita income, the three United Nations agencies also take into account human development need in their aid allocation as measured by the Physical Quality of Life Index. Some tentative evidence is found that respect for political freedom is rewarded with higher aid receipts at the aggregate multilateral level and by the Inter‐American Development Bank as well as perhaps, in a few estimations, two of the three United Nations agencies. Neither respect for personal integrity rights nor low levels of perceived corruption play any role in the allocation of aid by the donors looked at. In general, higher military expenditures and arms imports are not associated with higher aid receipts, with a few notable exceptions.

show abstract

“…Finally, as concerns the possible role of good governance, for the allocation of aid, most of the existing literature has focused on the case of U.S. development assistance, particularly with respect to democracy and human rights (see e.g., Cingranelli and Pasquarello 1985; Carleton and Stohl 1987; Poe 1992; Abrams and Lewis 1993; Apodaca and Stohl 1999). Because of different research designs, studies naturally come to different conclusions, but most of these studies confirm that more democratic and countries with a better human rights record are somewhat more likely to receive U.S. aid and are likely to receive a higher level of aid.…”

Section: Determinants Of Bit Schedulingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Interest, Foreign Need, and Good Governance: Are Bilateral Investment Treaty Programs Similar to Aid Allocation?

Neumayer

2006

Foreign Policy Analysis

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Article (refereed) Eric NeumayerSelf-interest, foreign need and good governance : are bilateral investment treaty programs similar to aid allocation? suggests that developed countries pursue a mixture of self-interest, foreign need and, possibly, good governance. We find evidence that both economic interests of developed countries' foreign investors and political interests of developed countries determine their scheduling of BITs. However, foreign need as measured by per capita income is also a factor, whereas good governance by and large does not matter. These results suggest that BIT programs can be explained employing the same framework successfully applied to the allocation of aid. At the same time, self-interest seems to be substantively more important than developing country need when it comes to BITs.

show abstract

Human rights and the distribution of U.S. foreign aid

Cited by 31 publications

References 9 publications

The Global Adoption of National Policies Protecting Children from Violent Discipline in Schools and Homes, 1950–2011

The Global Adoption of National Policies Protecting Children from Violent Discipline in Schools and Homes, 1950–2011

The Determinants of Aid Allocation by Regional Multilateral Development Banks and United Nations Agencies

Self-Interest, Foreign Need, and Good Governance: Are Bilateral Investment Treaty Programs Similar to Aid Allocation?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About