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International Area Studies Review
[ Article ]
International Area Studies Review - Vol. 27, No. 4, pp.341-352
ISSN: 2233-8659 (Print)
Print publication date 31 Dec 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.69473/iasr.2024.27.4.341

Do Colonial Legacy and Engagement with China Impact the Effectiveness of the European Aid in Promoting Democracy in African States?

Kossi Ahossey*
Political Science and Diplomacy, Soongsil University, Republic of Korea

Correspondence to: *Email: biova169@naver.com; deahossey@soongsil.ac.kr

Abstract

Though promoting democracy in African states has been one of the key priorities of international assistance and a basis for aid conditionality, the impact of developmental aid on democratic reforms in African states is highly debated. This paper contributes to this debate by exploring the influence of the EU official development aid disbursement on democracy scores in African countries. The findings based on the correlation and regression analysis of the panel data for 33 Sub-Saharan African states with British and French colonial legacies in 2005-2022 demonstrate that higher disbursements of the EU developmental aid are associated with higher freedom scores, while the reduction in development assistance does not result in better performance in terms of democracy. Furthermore, countries with a French colonial legacy demonstrate lower democracy scores in contrast to those with a British colonial legacy. Finally, Chinese economic engagement in Africa has a positive association with democracy scores.

Keywords:

Africa, EU, China, Colonial legacy, Developmental aid, Effectiveness

AI Acknowledgment

Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies were not used in any way to prepare, write, or complete essential authoring tasks in this manuscript.

Declaration of conflicting interests

I declare no conflicts of interest with respect to the research and authorship of this article.

Declaration on Funding

I declare that there is no funding.

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