The choice for multilateralism: Foreign aid and American foreign policy

By Helen V. Milner, Dustin Tingley. Revista Internacional de Organizaciones, 2012

191 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Why do governments choose multilateralism? We examine a principal-agent model in which states trade some control over the policy for greater burden sharing. The theory generates observable hypotheses regarding the reasons for and the patterns of support and opposition to multilateralism. To focus our study, we analyze support for bilateral and multilateral foreign aid giving in the US. Using new survey data, we provide evidence about the correlates of public and elite support for multilateral engagement. We find weak support for multilateralism and deep partisan divisions. Reflecting elite discourse, public opinion divides over two competing rationales—burden sharing and control—when faced with the choice between multilateral and bilateral aid channels. As domestic groups’ preferences over aid policy diverge from those of the multilateral institution, maintaining control over aid policy becomes more salient and support for multilateralism falls.

Subfields: Development, Political Science and International Relations, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ad5169c4524a876ffa85cdd05decde2bd62780c8

Citations in the corpus

• Coding Error or Statistical Embellishment? The Political Economy of Reporting Climate Aid (2011, unknown): “A number of academic studies also suggest the relevance of voters’ aid and/or environmental preferences for government policy (see e.g., List & Sturm, 2006; Milner & Tingley, 2010).”