Jean-Philippe Thérien

From domestic to international justice: the welfare state and foreign aid

Foreign aid often is interpreted as an international projection of domestic income redistribution mechanisms, and many authors suggest that differences between welfare states account for variations in donor behavior. A new understanding of the welfare state can improve traditional explanations of this linkage. Existing studies of the welfare–aid relationship use two welfare state indicators: domestic spending and partisan politics. We propose a third type of indicator—the institutional attributes of the welfare state—and demonstrate its relevance. The level of foreign aid provided by a country varies with social spending, but even more so with the degree to which its welfare state embodies socialist attributes. This finding helps explain how domestic political institutions influence the evolution of international cooperation and, specifically, how welfare principles institutionalized at the domestic level shape the participation of developed countries in the international aid regime.

Political Parties and Foreign Aid

The influence of partisan politics on public policy is a much debated issue of political science. With respect to foreign policy, often considered as above parties, the question appears even more problematic. This comparison of foreign aid policies in 16 OECD countries develops a structural equation model and uses LISREL analysis to demonstrate that parties do matter, even in international affairs. Social-democratic parties have an effect on a countrys level of development assistance. This effect, however, is neither immediate nor direct. First, it appears only in the long run. Second, the relationship between leftist partisan strength and foreign aid works through welfare state institutions and social spending. Our findings indicate how domestic politics shapes foreign conduct. We confirm the empirical relevance of cumulative partisan scores and show how the influence of parties is mediated by other political determinants.

Debating foreign aid: Right versus left

Foreign aid is a complex international institution which, over the years, has experienced a number of transformations. Most of these changes, however, cannot be understood outside the ideological environment in which they were engendered. Building on this analytical insight, the article argues that the debate on development assistance has always been framed in terms of an opposition between forces of the Right and forces of the Left. The first part of the article explains how the very definition of aid has been influenced by the Right-Left opposition. The second section uses the Right-Left distinction to re-examine the key stages in the history of the aid regime. The third part summarises the assessment that the Right and the Left each make of a half-century of development assistance. Finally, the conclusion discusses the significance of this contribution to the study of aid and international relations.

Divided Over Internationalism: The Canadian Public and Development Assistance

This analysis of public opinion toward foreign aid shows that Canadians are divided over internationalism, on two counts. First, while most citizens agree that development assistance is important, their support often remains shallow, unmatched by a commitment to undertake concrete actions. Second, the attitudes that Canadians hold toward development assistance indicate that there is a division in the countrys public between liberal and conservative internationalists, a cleavage that is anchored in domestic ideological and partisan differences. Comparable to what is found in other countries, the internationalism of Canadians does not appear as vigorous and as consensual as is often suggested.

Foreign policy and regionalism in the Americas

This is a comparative analysis of foreign policy behaviour in the Americas which focuses on the emerging trend towards regionalism. Fundamental questions regarding the relationship between national foreign policy and hemispheric co-operation and integration are addressed.

The United Nations and Global Democracy: From Discourse to Deeds

This article shows that the idea of global democracy has been a driving force in UN discourse and policies for the past two decades. In the first part, we use official rhetoric to explain that the promotion of global democracy by the UN rests on a particular set of values and beliefs. In an analysis that parallels the interpretation proposed by cosmopolitan democratic theorists, UN leaders argue that international governance must be democratized in order to reflect the recent reconfiguration of political forces. We then examine how UN ideas are put into practice through global public policies. Structured in line with the distinction between input- and output-based legitimacy, this second part demonstrates how UN policies foster greater participation by non-state actors in the organization’s deliberations and operations. The article suggests that the UN is an effective intellectual actor. By promoting civil society’s greater involvement in world politics, the discourse and policies of the UN have indeed succeeded in advancing the idea of a democracy ‘without borders’.

The politics of inclusion: Changing patterns in the governance of international security

The debate on the reform of the Security Council can be conceptualised as the most recent episode in the evolution of World Governing Councils (WGCs), that is, the highest-level intergovernmental bodies charged with regulating the international use of violence. Building on a historical comparison of key formative and transformative moments – 1815, 1919, 1945, and post-Cold War – we argue that the modern evolution of WGCs is characterised by increasing inclusiveness. More specifically, we show that the number of participants involved in deliberations has constantly risen; that legitimating principles have gradually tilted in favour of ‘input legitimacy’; that the constitutive rules and procedures have steadily gained in transparency; and that the WGCs themselves have comprised an expanding membership with a decreasing number of veto points. At the theoretical level, these converging trends can be explained by the existence of a ‘ratchet effect’ whereby new norms and practices of inclusion accumulate over time. However concrete and long lasting, the democratic gains registered in the process must be cast in terms of historically specific politics and struggles rather than in terms of lofty ideals promoted by altruistic norm entrepreneurs.

The Inter‐American regime of citizenship: bridging the institutional gap between democracy and human rights

Recent years have brought about a strengthening of inter‐American co‐operation in the areas of both human rights and democracy. Up to now, however, little attention has been devoted to the manner by which these two components of the inter‐American system are connected. The central argument of our article is that the concept of a citizenship regime provides an essential vehicle for bridging this gap. This notion makes it possible to recognise hemispheric changes regarding human rights and democracy as two sides of the same dynamic: the building of a more integrated inter‐American community. Anchored in a historical approach, the first part of the article explains how the OAS has been able to transform many of the features within the state–citizen relationship throughout the Americas. The second part goes on to demonstrate how the consolidation of the inter‐American citizenship regime remains fragile and incomplete, confronted by major challenges of both a domestic and an international nature. What we are seeing is a thin form of citizenship but one that helps reshape our understanding of the region.

Non-governmental Organizations and International Development Assistance

Contemporary literature has enriched our understanding of international relations by its emphasis on the concepts of non-state actor and cooperation. Inspired by the analytical usefulness of these ...

The United Nations ideology: from ideas to global policies

Abstract Building on the observation that the UN is a key intellectual actor of world politics, I argue that the end of the cold war marked a turning point in the evolution of UN thinking. The first part of the article puts forward a conceptual framework centred on the notions of global governance, ideology and global public policy. It shows that these three notions are useful tools for an understanding of the production and diffusion of UN ideas. This conceptual framework is used in the second part to analyse the three issues that have dominated the UN agenda throughout the post-cold war period: security, development and human rights. The third part then explains how this agenda has recently been extended to include a new issue: global democracy. I contend that, in each of its areas of interest, the UN ideology helps to establish global public policies designed to transform global governance practices. The article demonstrates that even though the UN is perpetually constrained by states—especially the most powerful ones—it does exercise a distinctive form of political leadership in global affairs.