When Money Talks, Who Listens? Democracy Aid Shocks and Human Rights Violations in Neighboring Countries, 1990-2013

Abstract

As democracy aid becomes more prevalent in the developing world, a thorough understanding of it and its effects becomes necessary. A series of recent studies determine that shocks in democracy aid, sudden decreases in democracy aid, increase the likelihood of armed conflict within the shocked country, as well as, increase human rights violations within the shocked country. However, can democracy aid shocks in one country affect human rights in its neighboring countries? This paper analyzes how democracy aid shocks, by the U.S. to the developing world since the end of the Cold War, affect neighboring countries. I argue that democracy aid shocks in one country cause increased human rights violations in its neighboring countries. I use a mixed methods research approach, first using a large-N study of U.S. democracy aid to the developing world from 1990-2013 to determine if a correlation between democracy aid shocks and human rights repression in contiguous nations occurs when controlling for other relevant factors likely to affect human rights violations. I also include a process-tracing case study of Uzbekistan from 1996-1997 to uncover potential causal mechanisms related to the diffusion of contiguous democracy aid shocks. To finish, I consider what this correlation signifies for U.S. democracy aid practices.