| This dissertation introduces a new theoretical approach to explaining the wide and puzzling variation in development aid policies across donor states and over time. It makes three broad claims. First, shared ideas about the goals and values of development aid shape aid policy. Second, these ideas cannot be reduced to underlying material interests or humanitarianism---instead, they are likely to include considerations of reputation, obligation, and enlightened self-interest. Third, these ideas are partially endogenous, and governments will attempt to affect them through public education efforts and by manipulating the visibility of aid.; Measures of the relative importance of different motivations for aid are derived by analyzing the rhetoric of legislators in four countries---Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and Norway---over a period of almost fifty years. Each motivation is associated with general predictions about aid policy and with certain explanatory factors. By combining these factors with the relative salience of each motivation, we can predict when they will affect aid policy. Empirical validation takes the form of statistical analyses of the determinants of the volume and geographical distribution of aid, as well as case studies of the four countries examined. To improve the analysis of the distribution of aid, a new two-stage, sample-selection model is developed, separating the selection of aid recipients from decisions regarding the size of aid flows.; The statistical analyses both of aid volume and of its geographical distribution support the claim that the influence of different explanatory factors varies with the relative strength of the associated goals and that motivations of prestige, obligation, and enlightened self-interest are of considerable importance. The case studies show that the Dutch disproportionately emphasize the goals of power and humanitarianism, Belgians obligation and wealth, Italians reputation and wealth, and Norwegians humanitarianism, reputation, and enlightened self-interest. More importantly, the volume, distribution, quality, and sectoral priorities of aid in these countries all reflect these different priorities. Finally, the case studies support the hypothesis that governments actively seek to shape public ideas about aid and manipulate the visibility of aid in order to increase or reduce the constraints imposed by those ideas. |
