American Foreign Aid

Paper Summary:

This paper examines progress and self-reliance in developing countries and contends that this cannot be achieved by handing them food and money. The paper maintains that progress depends to a large extent upon instituting democracy, because free elections are the one political institution that can ultimately resolve many of the social, political, and economic problems these nations are experiencing.

From the Paper:

"Due to the political perspectives of those concerned with this issue, there are widely divergent views concerning the success of American foreign aid efforts in developing countries to improve the income and quality of life of their populations. But the evidence of decades of American shipments of food and financial assistance to countries like Laos and Cambodia confirms that this aid is useless, for it rarely gets to the poverty-stricken people it was intended for. Progress and self-reliance in developing countries cannot be achieved by handing them food and money (Radelet 3-5). Progress depends to a large extent upon instituting democracy, because free elections are the one political institution that can ultimately resolve many of the social, political, and economic problems these nations are experiencing."

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