More Than Altruism

The Politics of Private Foreign Aid

Brian H. Smith

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9780691605739
  9780691078458
• eBook ISBN:
  9781400860951
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Development Economics
• Index: Social Sciences

As government officials and political activists are becoming increasingly aware, international nonprofit agencies have an important political dimension: although not self-serving, these private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) seek social changes of which many of their financial contributors are unaware. As PVOs and NGOs receive increasing subsidies from their home governments in the United States, Canada, and Europe, they are moving away from short-term relief commitments in developing countries and toward longer-term goals in health, education, training, and small-scale production. Showing that European and Canadian NGOs focus more on political change as part of new development efforts than do their U.S. counterparts, Brian Smith presents the first major comparative study of the political aspect of PVOs and NGOs. Smith emphasizes the paradoxes in the private-aid system, both in the societies that send aid and in those that receive it. Pointing out that international nonprofit agencies are in some instances openly critical of nation-state interests, he asks how these agencies can function in a foreign-aid network intended as a support for those same interests. He concludes that compromises throughout the private-aid networkand some secrecymake it possible for institutions with different agendas to work together. In the future, however, serious conflicts may develop with donors and nation states.

Originally published in 1990.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Historical Role of Private Foreign Aid as an Extension of North Atlantic Nation-State Interests Abroad
• 3 U.S. Private Foreign Aid Since World War II: Exporting the American Dreams of Self-Reliance and Democracy
• 4 European and Canadian Private Foreign Aid Since World War II: Creating New Modes of Political and Economic Influence Abroad in the Post-Colonial Era
• 5 Current Diversity in Private Foreign Aid Objectives: American Pragmatism Versus European Utopianism
• 6 Current Trade-offs Among the American Partners: PVOs, the U.S. Government, and Private Donors
• 7 Current Trade-offs Among the European and Canadian Partners: NGOs, Governments, and Private Donors
• 8 Threat or Support for Internal Stability in the Third World? The Impact of Private Foreign Aid in Latin America
• 9 Conclusions
• Appendix A-Research Methodology
• Appendix B-U.S. Canadian, and European Nonprofit Organizations in Survey
• Appendix C-Aid Resources of 205 Largest U.S. (1981), Canadian (1980), and European (1980) Nonprofit Organizations
• Appendix D-Questionnaire Administered to Policymakers in Forty-five U.S., Canadian, and European Nonprofit Organizations Supporting Programs in Latin America (October 1982-September 1983)
• Appendix E-Colombian Nonprofit Organizations in Survey
• Appendix F-Questionnaire Administered to Policymakers in Thirty-six Colombian Nonprofit Organizations (June-August 1984)
• Bibliography
• Index