THE CONNECTION BETWEEN EFFECTIVE DEMOCRATIC AID AND IGO MEMBERSHIP

Abstract

International governmental organizations (IGO) are a large and natural part of the international arena, the same goes for democracy assistance in various forms. Although extensive research has been conducted on both these areas, surprisingly little has been explored about how these large subjects together affects democratic development. This thesis examines how involvement in an IGO can strengthen democratic development in its member states. The participation of democracy aid recipient states in the various committees and groups of IGO:s, strengthens and streamlines the democratic support. This through mechanisms of socialization that occurs when key agents in the recipient and donor states work together. IGO:s provides a platform for discussion and debate that is crucial for mutual understanding and the success of democratic aid. I will seek to expand on the theoretical and empirical understandings of which mechanisms exist as the main drivers of the democratic development and consolidation with the main research question as following: Does democratic aid in combination with IGO membership strengthen the democratic development in a recipient state? To test if the mechanism of socialization has a noticeable impact on the levels of democracy in states that are recipients of democratic aid, I will conduct a fixed effects panel regression analysis. The data is on several global datasets encompassing 114 recipient states from 1995 to 2014. The findings conclude that recipient states that are engaged in IGO:s have greater possibilities of continuing their democratic developments. However noteworthy results occur when the controls for lagged variables are added.