Foreign aid to authoritarian regimes on the increase

Since 2013, almost half of Africa's top aid recipients have been ruled by authoritarian one-party states. Prominent donors such as USAID, DFID or the World Bank have seen their aid policies entangled with the agendas of governmental elites. This raises the question to what extend foreign aid is perpetuating authoritarian rule in Africa.

Aid and Authoritarianism in Africa is the fist major academic publication to highlight and scrutinize the increasingly visible link between foreign aid and undemocratic governance in Africa. Co-edited by DIIS visiting scholar Tobias Hagmann, the book brings together leading experts on the political situation in Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Cameroon, Mozambique, and Angola. The contributors expose the impacts of foreign aid on military assistnace, rural development, electoral processes and domestic politics.

Offering a controversial, yet crucial argument on the perpetuation of authoritarianism in Africa, this book invites both policy-makers and scholars to pay closer attention to the role of international aid in undermining democratisation in Africa