The Moral Politics of Foreign Aid Author(s): Tomohisa Hattori Reviewed work(s): Source: Review of International Studies, Vol.

29, No. 2 (Apr., 2003), pp. 229-247 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20097847 . Accessed: 29/01/2013 20:33
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Review

of International

Studies

(2003),

29, 229-247

Copyright

? British

International

Studies

Association

DOI: 10.1017IS0260210503000147

The moral politics of foreign aid

TOMOHISA HATTORI*

Abstract. empirical this claim

In what substance

sense to this

can

is most plausible a trans-historical beneficence, as a moral such donations stantiates a view donor of states the

as a moral aid be understood Is there any foreign practice? a type of foreign claim? This article aid in which reconceptualises - as a contemporary aid agencies form of grants by multilateral on Aristotelian virtue it identifies ethics, Drawing phenomenon. with between distinction. deep roots states in Western that goes history. beyond the This simple analysis notion sub of

practice relations moral

reciprocity
identifying

emphasised

by neoliberals.
with

It concludes

with

the political

implications

of

Introduction

It has been a half-century since President Truman's 'Point Four' speech, which as the launched worldwide known phenomenon foreign aid.1 The intention of that of war-torn Europe - the focus of speech was to reach beyond the reconstruction the Marshall Plan - to assist in the transition of scores of new states in the former to in the international colonies full membership community. The implicit claim was was a a vision of international that such assistance moral action that embodied This ethical justification for foreign aid has been largely peace and prosperity. dismissed relations. For political realists, foreign aid by scholars of international a strategic interest in these new states during the Cold War, when the euphemised

I acknowledge of Lehman College the financial of the City support of the Shuster Fellowship of New York (CUNY) and the PSC-CUNY Research Award. An earlier version of this University at the annual conference of the International in article was presented Studies Association in Chicago am especially 2001.1 and Donna Kirchheimer for their insightful February grateful to Alex Wendt comments. 1 For a transcript of Truman's States Department of State, Point Four: Cooperative speech, see United Areas (Washington, DC: US Program for Aid in the Development of Economically Underdeveloped of State, December is a very large literature on the phenomenon 1949), pp. 78-85. There Department of foreign aid. For its antecedents in the US, see Murle Curti and Kendall to Point Four: Birr, Prelude American Technical Missions 1838-1938 of Wisconsin Overseas, Press, (Madison, WI: University J. Hogan, The Marshall Plan: America, Britain, and the Plan, see Michael 1954). For the Marshall Reconstruction 1947-1952 Press, 1987); and (New York: Cambridge of Western Europe, University Plan Days Charles P. Kindleberger, Marshall (Winchester, MA: Allen & Unwin, 1987). On the first bilateral aid of the United H. McNeill, Greece: American Aid in States, see William security-related 1947-1956 Fund, (New York: Twentieth 1957). For a postwar history of US Century see Vernon W. Ruttan, Assistance United States Development assistance, development Policy: The Domestic Politics Aid (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1996). of Foreign Economic University On the continuity of US military in the immediate postwar period before and economic assistance see William A. Brown and Redvers Opie, American Foreign Assistance decolonisation, (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1953). Action,

229

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Tomohisa Hattori

to the Third between the superpowers threat of nuclear war shifted the competition an equally harsh reality World.2 For world system theorists, foreign aid misrecognised of economic domination and exploitation of the core industrial over the peripheral states.3 Even liberals, who have generally embraced foreign aid, shied away from as a to view it technical moral claims, preferring expedient, facilitating what they as means commerce of world and the real and trade.4 peace regard prosperity: The ethical claims for foreign aid persist nonetheless. Reviewing the literature, one can recognise for foreign aid within the liberal three distinct ethical justifications tradition. The first identifies foreign aid as an 'imperfect obligation' of the industrial states to provide ised to the 'less developed' 'basic needs', which are identified as a fundamental human right. This, essentially deontological, the argument anticipates increasing 'perfection' of this obligation as the practice of foreign aid becomes more over time.5 The second ethical justification identifies foreign aid as a institutionalised to problems that can be remedied with technical expertise. This, identifies the moral good with an imperative for utilitarian, argument essentially in terms of a doctor-patient in which and is made 'improvement' relationship, moral agency is attributed to (donor) doctors by virtue of their technical capabilities and moral regard to (recipient) patients because of the larger social benefit that can accrue from their cure.6 Finally, foreign aid is identified as embodying the ideal of moral response

Foreign

see, for example, George Liska, The New Statecraft: Foreign Aid in American of Chicago A Political IL: University Press, 1960); Hans Morgenthau, Policy (Chicago, Science Review, 56 (1962), pp. 301-9; R. D. McKinlay and of Foreign Aid', American Political Theory of US Bilateral Aid Allocation', World Politics, 30 (1977), pp. R. Little, A Foreign Policy Model Aid and Arms to the Third World: An Analysis and A. Mughan, 58-86; R. D. McKinlay of the From

a large literature,

Distribution and Impact of US Official Transfers (London: Francis Pinter, 1984); and Steven W. Hook, Interest and Foreign A id (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, National 1995). From Marshall Plan to Debt Crisis: Foreign Aid and Development See, for example, Robert E. Wood, Choices in the World Economy of California Press, 1986). (Berkeley, CA: University 4 and Economic and Alan M. Strout, See, for example, Hollis B. Chenery 'Foreign Assistance see American Economic 56 (1966), pp. 679-733; and for its updated Review, version, Development', B. W^hite (ed.), Aid and Macroeconomic Evidence and Four Howard Theory, Empirical Performance: New York: St. Martin's, Country Cases 1998). (London: Macmillan; 5 as well as the distinction For the problem with rights-based between associated arguments 'perfect with rights and 'imperfect obligation' without 'The Great obligation' rights, see Onora O'Neill, in Neil MacCormick and Zenon Bankowski of Justice and Charity', Maxims (eds.), Enlightenment, in Legal and Social Philosophy (Aberdeen, UK: Aberdeen University Rights and Revolution: Essays Account Towards Justice and Virtue: A Constructive Press, 1989), pp. 297-312; Reasoning of Practical Press, 1996), pp. 122-5. For a recent review of international (New York: Cambridge University 3 distributive of Recent justice, Thought', see Charles R. Beitz, 'International Liberalism and Distributive Justice: A Survey 51 (1999), pp. 269-96. For an argument based on human World Politics, rights see Henry and US Shue, Basic Rights: Subsistence, Affluence 'perfect obligation'),

the human 2nd edn. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Press, 1996). Although University inMartha Sen (eds.), The Quality C. Nussbaum and Amartya of Life (New capabilities approach the human rights argument, it ultimately York: Oxford University Press, 1993) does not employ states. from the wealthier requires the same thing: redistribution 6 to 'the best consequences than 'the greatest refers more for all those concerned' Improvement for the greatest number'. See Peter Singer, Practical Ethics (New York: Cambridge happiness is characteristic of the modernisation Press, 1979), pp. 12-3, 158-81. This ethical argument University now largely defunct. See especially, Walt W. Rostow, The Stages of theories of development, Growth: Non-Communist Economic Press, 1960); (New York: Cambridge University Manifesto This application and Economic of the 'moral and Strout, 'Foreign Assistance Development'. Chenery to foreign aid was inspired by Cornelia Navari: Cannot Act: 'When Agents patient' notion as Moral in Toni Erskine Institutions International Patients', (ed.), Can Institutions Have Duties? Collective Moral Agency and International Relations (New York: Palgrave, forthcoming).

(anticipating Foreign Policy,

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The moral politics of humanitarianism.7 Proponents rationales support for humanitarian

of foreign

aid

231

this view offer compelling evidence of public for foreign aid.8 The fundamental in the liberal problem with all these ethical justifications tradition is their implicit idealism, or the assumption that ideas can have causal force in and of themselves. David Lumsdaine makes this assumption explicit, arguing that on cannot aid be the basis of the economic and interests 'foreign explained political a of the donor countries alone, and any satisfactory must central explanation give to the influence of humanitarian and convictions aid upon place egalitarian donors'.9 The key analytical problem with idealist reasoning is that it takes ideas out of their social context and embeds them in specific individuals, like policymakers, or who become the causal to This makes it difficult consultants, priests, agents. reconstruct the causal process whereby such ideas emerge in actual social practice.10 These ethical justifications I and pervasive, are, nonetheless, sufficiently persistent to now revisit the with other tools that it is believe, question analytical especially abundantly clear that foreign aid is not going to fade with the end of the Cold War or be replaced by other institutions and practices of international economic
exchange.

of foreign aid in this article My approach to the question of a moral dimension as the discursive identifies ethical justifications side of a social practice, or, more simply, an aspect of what people say about what they do. This allows me to reframe the inquiry as a search for a specific type of a practice, taking discursive claims as an important clue. I ask, in short: in what sense, if any, can foreign aid be understood as a moral practice? Is there any empirical substance to this claim?11 Because foreign aid is, first and foremost, a practice of states, Imust also assume that the agency of states can be approached in a similar manner as the agency of individuals, that is, as constituted. For this, I draw on the metatheoretical socially insight of Alexander an state who that the is real Wendt, argues identities, agent, whose ontologically are and in to constituted relation other states.12 Finally, interests, power capabilities and following from this insight, I assume that foreign aid can be reconceptualised as

J. Philippe Rushton, Socialization and Society Altruism, Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, (Englewood 1980), Vision in International Moral Politics: The Foreign Aid Regime, 1949-1989 pp. 2-4; David Lumsdaine, see of unselfishness, Press, 1993), pp. 9-11. On the modalities (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Nicholas The Role of Vicarious Affects in Moral Philosophy and Social Theory Rescher, Unselfishness: PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1975), p. 11. (Pittsburgh, 8 183-90. Lumsdaine, Moral Vision, pp. 43-5, 116-27, 151-79, 9 Ibid., pp. 29. 10 Derek in Capital Sussex, UK: Sayer, Marx's Method: Ideology, Science and Critique (Hassocks, The Analytic Foundations Harvester, 1979), pp. 4-8; The Violence of Abstraction: of Historical Materialism 1987), pp. 85-96. (Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 11 Ibid. To elaborate, the analytical tool is a dialectical method of conceptual inquiry that unfolds three distinct of the material and relational conditions of a social practice steps: (1) abstraction the boundaries and units of an empirically-observed is, redrawing world; key social identifying

in (that

the process by which such social relations are reproduced); relations; and explicating (2) identification of a related discourse; and (3) geo-historical that applies the concept in a specific time specification and place. All three steps are repeated for any observation that cannot be explained. See Bertell Oilman, Dialectical Investigations (New York: Routledge, 1993). 12 See Alexander Social Theory of International Politics Wendt, Press, (New York: Cambridge University 'The Agent-Structure Problem in International Wendt, 1999), pp. 193-218, 224-45; Alexander Relations International 41 (1987), pp. 365-9. Another this is way of putting Theory', Organization, that the agency of states is neither the sum total of individual actions nor the inexorable outcome of

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Tomohisa Hattori

a specific type of practice that is categorically distinct from the type of practices in international relations (IR) theory:13 it is a gift extended from normally analysed
one country to the next.

in three parts. The first part briefly elaborates how foreign My argument as a specific can be reconceptualised the type of social relation within of This bilateral literature aid encompasses anthropological gift exchange. conception and is broadly consistent with the 'materialist' theories in IR, which view foreign aid as emerging more or less directly from the hierarchies of the postwar world. The unfolds aid second part considers the small portion of foreign aid that falls outside this concep tion: the multilateral grants of states. This portion of foreign aid is categorically a to aid-giving to of individuals: donations similar non-governmental practice (NGOs). This categorical similarity opens the inquiry to another organisations scholarly literature not intuitively applicable to interstate relations: the broad history of giving traditions in theWest. It also suggests another social dynamic specific to the discursive side of the practice: the public scrutiny and praise of donors. The third part of aid practice back to the pheno of this article applies this further specification as a whole, focusing on the institutionalisation menon of foreign aid in the postwar era as a collective endeavour of the former colonising states. It concludes that there is indeed some empirical substance behind these ethical claims and, therefore, an of interstate relations however, one that is significant moral dimension empirically more consistent with Aristotelian, than liberal, ethics. I close with a brief summary of the political implications of this argument for IR theory.

Foreign

aid as a social relation of giving14

the complex phenomenon of foreign aid is that it is a very The key to understanding specific type of practice, with certain universal features etched across human history. It is a gift, or a voluntary extension of resources from one individual or society to to Marcel Mauss, from other forms another. According giving differs fundamentally in human society because its primary focus is not the material of resource allocation resource but the social relationship economic that is created or reinforced.15 With is narrowly defined for example, the social relation by contractual exchange, it is defined by politically achieved rights.16 A gift, agreements; with redistribution,

some deeper structural of assumptions logic and, as such, cannot be reduced to the instrumental On the state as an autonomous subject, see Stephen Krasner, security or profit maximisation. Interest (Princeton, NJ: Princeton the National Press, 1978). On the state as an University Defending see Immanuel Wallerstein, World System: The Modern of the system), object (as an instrument and Agriculture Capitalist 1974). Please note that I use TR' relations' or 'international See my 633-60. 'Reconceptualizing Mauss, the Origins of the European World-Economy (New York: Academic Press,

13 14

to refer to the scholarly field of international relations and 'interstate to refer to relations between states. relations' Political Economy, 8 (2001), pp. Foreign Aid', Review of International and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies (New York: Norton, Karl

15 Marcel 1967). 16 Marshall Polanyi,

The Gift: Forms

IL: Aldine, Sahlins, Stone Age Economics (Chicago, 1972), pp. 185-230, following The Great Transformation (New York: Farrar and Pinehart, 1944), pp. 43-55.

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The moral politics by contrast,

of foreign

aid

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to reciprocate. If it is returned, the creates only a social obligation it was intended to convey. If itself is rejected, along with any meanings relationship to reciprocate a gift becomes very powerful. it is accepted, however, the obligation as a universal to reciprocate Mauss went so far as to characterise the obligation norm in human society. He concluded that it would not only mitigate conflicts but and competing also create a sense of 'common life' among otherwise antagonistic
societies.17

Pursuing Mauss's insight into the social power of giving, to reciprocate a gift was a the obligation argued that suspending it did not social hierarchy between donor and recipient. Because coercive force, such a giving practice, he argued, could work to

Sahlins powerful signal of involve the use of naturalise a social

Marshall

to social cohesion in an increasingly stratified and hierarchy over time, contributing on the side of this hierarchical conflictual up receiving Picking giving society.18 identified the unreciprocated relation, Pierre Bourdieu gift as a form of 'symbolic the powerful into the generous, that the domination' that transformed arguing was to of that filled, instead, gestures by obligation reciprocate signal the gratitude in an otherwise burdensome order of things.19 recipients' acquiescence The bulk of what can be called foreign aid falls into this sociological category of a an unreciprocated a one to the next of it is direct extension from country gift: gift to This that indefinitely the of the obligation suspends specification reciprocate.20 material and relational conditions of aid practice is consistent with the basic insights of the political realist and world-system theories: that is, the phenomenon of foreign states in the hierarchies between aid arises more or less directly from the material or socioeconomic). era (whether politico-military At the same time, postwar however, Whereas as to its larger meaning to a very different conclusion and effects. of these theories regard foreign aid as an active influence, extending these hierarchical relations of the postwar world, reconceptualising foreign aid as an content that the substantive and aim of aid projects and unreciprocated gift suggests both it comes

17 Mauss,

The Gift, pp. 3-12. This insight has been widely accepted in sociological and anthropological see Karen S. Cook individualist (ed.), Social Exchange theory. For methodological applications, in IR, see David A. Baldwin, Paradoxes Theory (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1989). For applications of Power (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1989); Economic (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Statecraft University on foreign aid. For methodological see collectivist Press, 1985), especially pp. 290-335 applications, Claude

The Elementary Structures revised edn. (Boston, MA: Beacon, Levi-Strauss, of Kinship, 1969). Sahlins differentiated Sahlins, Stone Age Economics., pp. 193-6, 171-83, 204-15. giving practices by to the underlying the nature of reciprocity power relation between donor and corresponding In the basic form, reciprocation social relationship between recipient. signals a 'balanced' equals. In a temporary to acknowledge is temporarily 'generalised' reciprocity, reciprocity suspended inequality, as between parents and children. 19 Pierre Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1990), pp. 98-111. 20 This specification of the practice by the type of social relation also suggests considerable confusion over what foreign aid is.Many mistake a type of international foreign aid as a form of redistribution, of what is called foreign aid is actually welfare. Much redefined loans, a form of economic exchange as a gift (obligation to repay is not voluntary but rather spelled out in a contractual arrangement). Some loans are technically redefined as having loans (see DAC, 'grant element' as in 'concessional' contrasts of equality in a loan contract 1994, p. 114). The presumption Development Cooperation, 18 relation that defines debt rescheduling between the First and sharply with the coercive and unequal is a better term). When the Third Worlds loans are not repaid, they (in many cases 'debt bondage' a source of creditor become influence. Therefore, unlike grants, what loans do is primary and possibly and the International Aid and Sovereignty: Financial Quasi-States significant. David Williams, Review of International Studies, 26 (2000), pp. 557-73. Institutions',

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Tomohisa Hattori

programmes quo?1 What

to the larger effect of signalling and affirming the status is secondary aid is, in short, ismore important than what it does. foreign this understanding of foreign aid as an unreciprocated counterintuitive, Though more is also consistent with the broad gift history of aid practice in the postwar era. In contrast to political realists, who predicted a sharp fall-off in foreign aid with the end of the Cold War, or world-system theorists, who predicted its inexorable increase

with

the expansion of global capitalism, the data indicate a remarkable stability of as a aid of donor gross national product (GNP) over the past 35 percentage foreign as grants, which has This is in the portion extended years. apparent especially fluctuated only between 0.20 and 0.25 per cent of donor GNP the entire throughout to the stability of the North-South divide across period.22 This stability corresponds

which

these gifts have been extended: with few exceptions, donors have remained donors, while recipients have remained recipients.23 The one type of foreign aid that falls outside this reconceptualisation is multi lateral grant aid, or the donations of states to multilateral aid organisations, such as or the United the United Nations Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Children's Fund (UNICEF). This type of foreign aid is currently just under 10 per cent of all official development assistance these multilateral (ODA).24 Although grants are also unreciprocated gifts extended across the stable material divide of the

postwar mediated

era, the social relation between donor and recipient is no longer direct but agency. From the arguments above, it would appear that by the multilateral the symbolic power of the gift no longer holds: donors in this case do not control where their gifts are going, nor do recipients know who the original donors are. In this respect, the multilateral in common with the grants of states have more to non-governmental donations of individuals aid organisations such as (NGOs), or Church World CARE than any other practice of states (including Service, as a form of redistribution or domestic welfare programmes, which are distinguished of resources as a right, not a gift). They can be understood, the allocation in short, as a form of philanthropy.

is a vast literature on the policy aims and effectiveness see of foreign aid. For a good example, Does Aid Work? Report on an Intergovernmental Cassen and Associates, Task Force, 2nd edn. Press, 1994). (New York: Oxford University 22 Assistance Committee for Economic and (DAC) of the Organisation Development Cooperation Assistance 1969, pp. 304-5. DAC, Development (OECD), Development (Paris: OECD), Development 1974, p. 233; 1975, p. 230; 1978, p. 216; 1981, p. 196; 1982, p. 179; 1985, p. 335; 1987, Cooperation, p. 198; 1988, p. 187; 1990, p. 188; 1991, pp. 230-1; 1992, p. A8; 1994, pp. A3-A4, A9-A10; 1999, pp. 164-5. The drop to 0.18 per cent in the late 1990s does not include the substantial increase in aid to the former Soviet bloc countries Ibid., 1999, p. 257; 2000 [also (about 0.02 per cent of donor GNP). known as DAC Journal, 2 (2001), p. 263. 23 of foreign aid that became donors during this period included the oil-exporting Arab Recipients in the 1970s and South Korea and Taiwan in the 1990s. China and India, two major countries aid See DAC, Development 2000, p. 263. recipients, have also been donors. Cooperation, 24 A9-A10, D4, K4, LI; 1998, pp. A3-A4, Ibid., 1994, pp. A3-A4, A37, A42, A91-A92, A96; 1999, 1975 and 1998, the share of multilateral pp. 164-5, 168-9, 203; 2000, pp. 180-1, 219. Between in ODA fluctuated 10 and 15 per-cent. between If European such as the grants organisations, are considered bilateral after the Maastricht the share of Fund, European Development Treaty, in ODA declines to about 8 per cent in the late 1990s (that is, mostly United multilateral grants Nations agencies). There Robert

21

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The moral politics The institutionalisation of giving

of foreign

aid

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grants with the institutionalised gifts of advantage of identifying multilateral an as international international to, say, individuals, regime providing opposed and non public goods, is that it opens this inquiry to the broad history of Western Western the ethical discourses traditions and, by extension, highly developed giving associated with them. It allows me, in short, to move the inquiry from material and to the discursive side of aid practice. This is a more complex relational conditions on is vast, and there has been little The literature step. giving traditions analytical or of and relational the trans-historical comparison sorting differing material The conditions done
observations

and ethical discourses practices

for giving

to the work that anthropologists comparable two fairly that are face-to-face.25 Nonetheless,

have simple

emerge.

First of all, the discursive justification for giving as an institutionalised practice is in a specific type of ethical tradition that emphasises of rooted the qualities excellence or virtue in an individual's character.26 To elaborate briefly, the concept of virtue conveys a particular set of ethical concerns that is characteristic of Confucian, and Judeo-Christian-Islamic Aristotelian, (or Semitic) ethics, including: a belief in or are able to distinguish an autonomous the notion that individuals will, right from wrong and good from bad; and 'justice as desert', or the notion that society must treat people as responsible for their actions and punish or reward them accordingly. 'Justice as desert' can be traced to Mesopotamia Law, 'eye for an (Hammurabi's a as a belief in larger divine reckoning or 'day eye') and emerged in Semitic thought to his 'to each according of judgement'.27 Aristotle clearly spelled out the principle, to social responsibilities deserts', while Confucius argued that because correspond of higher ranks should be social status, successful performance by individuals accorded higher social recognition and reward.28 the focus of virtue ethicists is the character of the individual, Second, although their larger point of reference is the good society, as indicated by the task to which the right set of normative prescriptions for they have all set themselves: discovering

25

see Warren F. Illichman, For an attempt at comparing various traditions, Stanley N. Katz, and Edward inWorld Traditions IN: Indiana University L. Queen Press, 1992). (eds.), Philanthropy (Bloomington, 26 The literature on virtue ethics is huge. See, for example, Daniel Statman (ed.), Virtue Ethics and William A. Galston DC: Georgetown Press, 1997); John W. Chapman University (Washington, Press, 1992). For this specific (New York: New York University (eds.), Virtue: Nomos, XXXIV trans, by Martin Nicomachean Ostwald definition of virtue, see Aristotle, Ethics, (New York: 27 Macmillan, 1962), On the autonomous 1103al0-l 107a25; and pp. 303-4 in the glossary. Moral will, see Alasdair Maclntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Theory, 2nd edn. IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984), pp. 23-35. For a history of 'justice as (Notre Dame, see Tom Campbell, Justice Education, desert', (London: Macmillan 1988), pp. 152-68. For a modern Its Due: Social of this theory of justice as desert, see Wojciech elaboration Sadurski, Giving Desert D. Reidel, Justice and Legal Theory (Dordrecht, Holland: 1985). For a contemporary critique of the

Virtue Theories, and the Vices Character, place of desert in virtue ethics, see Christine McKinnon, Ontario: Broadview Press, 1999), p. 135. (Peterborough, 28 1131a20-30. The notion of 'justice as desert' logically extends to Nicomachean Aristotle, Ethics, For an ethical argument corrective for (Ibid., 1131b25-1132b20). justice or justice of rectification corrective 'The Moral Foundations of justice, see Brian Opeskin, foreign aid based on Aristotelian see The Analects, 24 (1996), pp. 21^44. For Confucian arguments, Foreign Aid', World Development, trans. D. C. Lau (New York: Penguin, VI.13; VI.21; VI.30; VIII.9; 1979), Book 1.13; II.9; V.16; VI.ll; XIII.4; XIII.29; XII.7; XII. 11; XII.22; XII.19; XIII.20; XIII.30; XIV.9; XIV.23; XIV.42; XV.32.

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Tomohisa Hattori

such as Michel Mollat the flourishing of virtue in society.29 Historical sociologists, the issue with a broad social lens, observe and Paul Veyne, who approach that, the aspiration behind the notion of virtue is universal, each society although set specific to its historical and material its own distinctive context.30 They develops that arises at the juncture between a also describe a process of institutionalisation the elaboration and its external includes of effect, which disposition a virtuous the for and and standards emergence of classifying disposition identifying as to the and such. intermediaries with authenticate authority judge them Jacques resonant term for such intermediaries: Le Goff has a particularly 'moral book as in the practice is religious of authorities example keepers'.31 The primary virtuous In the Catholic Church.32 through suffrages that arose in the medieval it was just as likely to be the new wake of the Protestant Reformation, however, run by the rising gentry and merchant classes.33 private philanthropies of these observations is that they identify a The significance for my argument atonement internal virtuous disposition.34 social incentive that is distinct from the (assumed) the discursive emphasis of all such public scrutiny and praise or sanction is Although to act in itself. the character of the individual, social recognition can be a motivation to a specific practice as allow me to connect an ethical discourse These observations to a disembodied virtue into virtuous ideal. This process of externalising opposed practice can also explain the wide incidence and great antiquity of giving traditions of social order on individual virtue.35 As that base their conception societies in a

29

and to what extent the great systems of virtue ethics have is endless debate over whether true universal For a pluralist/relativist Ethics and the identified take, see Bernard Williams, principles. Limits of Philosophy Press, 1985); for a universalist University interpretation, (New York: Cambridge see Martha in Peter A. French, Virtues: An Aristotelian Non-Relative Nussbaum, Approach', in Philosophy, E. Uehling, Studies vol. 13, Ethical and Howard K. Wettstein Theodore (eds.), Midwest IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988). For the and Virtue (Notre Dame, Theory: Character in the Intellectual History Studies Confucian version of this debate, see Masao Maruyama, of was Confucius Press, 1974). Like Aristotle, Tokugawa Japan (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University see The Analects, of virtues, concerned with good government 1.5; through the flourishing ultimately There

and on king's way, 1.12, IV.8, XIX.22. II.l; II.3; 11.21; 11.23; VI.24; XII.7; XII.9; XII.20; in Social History The Poor in theMiddle Michel Mollat, Ages: An Essay (New Haven, CT: Yale and Political Pluralism Press, 1986); Paul Veyne, Bread and Circuses: Historical Sociology University in Japan, Jinsai Itou took a the turn of the eighteenth century (New York: Penguin, 1990). Around see Tetsuo Najita, Visions of Virtue in historicist neo-Confucianism, perspective against universalist IL: University of Chicago Academy of Osaka (Chicago, Tokugawa Japan: The Kaitokudo Merchant Press, 1987), p. 29. 31 IL: University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp. 173, (Chicago, Jacques Le Goff, The Birth of Purgatory 30 189-90, 228-9, 240, 292, 302-5, 322. 32 Ibid., 11-2, 169-72,272-7 33 in England, 1480-1660 W. K. Jordan, Philanthropy 1959); Paul Slack, (London: Allen and Unwyn, to Improvement From Reformation Press, 1999). (New York: Oxford University 34 of made A social construction of virtue could include Bourdieu's concept of habitus (or dispositions individual will and willed practice towards and dispositions that combine social necessity) Virtue (New See Yves R. Simon, The Definition technical/functional and ethical excellence. of Moral Fordham University Jenkins, Bourdieu Press, (New York: Routledge, 1986), pp. 55-61; Richard In Other Words: Essays towards a Reflexive p. 75; Pierre Bourdieu, 1992), pp, 74-84, especially Press, (Stanford, CA: Stanford University 1990), pp. 9-13. Sociology 35 Shisoushi of Social Welfare Nihon Shakai Hukushi Yoshida, See, for example, Kyuuichi [A History in Central Asia: Four in Japan] (Tokyo: Kawashima Shoten, 1989); R. D. McChesney, Waqf Thought Years in the History Hundred Shrine, 1480-1880 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University of aMuslim in British India (New York: Cambridge and Society Muslim Endowments Press, 1991); G. Kozlowski, in Jerusalem under British Mandate Reiter, Islamic Endowments Press, 1985); Yitzhak University York: (London: Frank Cass, 1996).

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aid

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material resource, gifts provide the most quantifiable measure of an individual's virtue as well as a material that authenticate and judge for the intermediaries opportunity both individual virtue and social ideals. them as such. In short, they can materialise for individuals to of giving creates an opportunity the institutionalisation Moreover, - a common ethical dilemma that Jean Bodin called 'the sweet buy public recognition the most bait of honor'.36 Perhaps, example of this was the egregious historical arose in the medieval Christian Church.37 This heightened 'purchase of paradise' that that has emerged to distinguish is indicated by the careful terminology the inner disposition, benevolence, from its external practice, beneficence?* and relational of these observations conditions back into the material Fitting in the previous section, it is clear that the institu unreciprocated giving described to give beyond the incentive for individuals the of giving expands tionalisation relation. Ethical discourses and simple gratitude of recipients in a direct face-to-face forms of public scrutiny and praise effectively fill the normative gap that is created the virtue of the giver in his own when a gift is not reciprocated by confirming also weighs society. At the same time, however, this process of institutionalisation in accepting such a gift, the recipient is the act of receiving with moral significance: - not just the material hierarchy but also the moral acknowledging by this action norm of reciprocity in gift exchange, the universal virtue of the donors. Given same to creates kind of symbolic here the the reciprocate suspending obligation relation of giving: it allows donors to treat found in a direct face-to-face if in 'as fact, could, recipients they reciprocate.39 Only in this case, it creates an condi added fiction of reciprocal moral agency. Finally, because the basic material to limit those with also the material tions that foster unreciprocated giving practice of giving can foster a more insidious effect over time: means, the institutionalisation it can work to ethically order, recasting a material legitimise a material hierarchy domination between donor and recipient as a moral hierarchy. Paul Veyne captures this effect in Rome: his description of the 'bread and circuses' of ancient Republican '[s]ymbolic on and conferred the relations between plebs a style of amiable largesses oligarchy
condescension'.40

ethical concern

Foreign

aid as beneficence

to non-governmental like The donations of individuals (NGOs) organisations or Church World in the above Service are clearly a form of beneficence CARE are actively and encouraged gifts, which conception. They are unreciprocated a as a across virtuous and extended stable authenticated intermediaries practice, by material divide, in this case, from citizens of the industrialised countries to the poor

36

Joel T. Rosenthal, The Purchase See, for example, of Paradise: Gift Giving and the Aristocracy, and Kegan Paul, 1307-1485 1972). (London: Routledge 38 Social Philosophy and Policy, 4 (1987), pp. 1-20. William 'Beneficence/Benevolence', Frankena, 39 Outline of a Theory of Practice Press, 1977), pp. 4-6. Bourdieu, (New York: Cambridge University 40 p. 215. Veyne, Bread and Circuses,

37

and Equality (New York: Basic Quoted by Michael Walzer, Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism As Sebastian for corruption. de Books, 1983), p. 267. Thus, giving clearly increases the potential to be corrupt, people cannot corrupt themselves'. Machiavelli in Grazia put it, '[w]ithout the means Hell Press, 1990), p. 106. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University

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tori

of

are full of testimonials to the beneficence in the South. The annual reports of NGOs can one two basic these gifts. Among them, types: religious and distinguish to religious NGOs extend missionary traditions associated with secular. Donations and are ethically justified colonisation and American the long history of European

as an expression of the donors' relation to God of 'charity' (the original meaning of around world their the of and the 'love (another meaning God') neighbours being a on of to tradition also draw NGOs Donations secular giving, long 'charity').41 and are ethically justified by the more England, dating back to sixteenth-century self-interest'.42 This virtues that arose at that time, including modern 'enlightened - is as a means to the of helping ethical justification poor help themselves gifts in the frequent reference to 'basic needs' and 'grassroots action' in the reflected statements of NGOs.43 mission the donations of states to multilateral Like the donations of individuals to NGOs, a also take place in mediated relation, which obscures the identity of aid organisations states forgo not only acknowledgement the donor in relation to the recipient. Donor - but thus the symbolic power that characterises bilateral aid from the recipient state for example, donors the UNDP, also control over the projects that they fund. Within have no direct say over project identification and approval or subsequent implement and evaluation. These are handled, instead, by a ation, procurement, monitoring, of the recipient state, the tripartite forum that includes representatives from ministries and the project implementing resident representative, UNDP agency (a contractor, as a Food and such the UN Agriculture Organisation).44 Agency, Specialised typically funded by these agencies also focus the projects and programmes Like the NGOs, on the needs of the poorest people and states.45 overwhelmingly
On Charity (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette St. Thomas Aquinas, Press, 1960). Charity was not University only a virtue in itself (pp. 17-25) but also served as a base for all virtues (pp. 33-9); and unlike other virtues that had 'good' as their object, charity had God as its formal object (pp. 46-50). This ethical statement of in the mission is captured Catholic Church, justification, which originated with the medieval is the Gospel of Jesus force in all CRS activities 'The fundamental motivating Catholic Relief Services: of people, and fostering of of human suffering, the development Christ as it pertains to the alleviation 'Catholic Call to Justice: Catholic Campaign charity and justice in the world'. Catholic Relief Services, November States Catholic Conference, for Human Development' 1998), p. 12. (Washington, DC: United 42 see Jordan, Philanthropy inEngland, David in England, For a good history of philanthropy 1480-1660; 1660-1960 Press, 1964); Slack, From Owen, English Philanthropy, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University in Tudor and Stuart England to Improvement; and Paul Slack, Poverty and Policy (London: Reformation of current private foreign aid by NGOs, see, for example, Peter J. 1988). For a discussion Longman, Press, 1991); Brian Smith, More Burnell, Charity, Politics, and the Third World (New York: St. Martin's The Politics of Private Foreign A id (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990). their basic needs, strengthen Network asserts, for example: 'people can meet Development to global welfare action'. Overseas Development and contribute communities, through grassroots . . What . not dated). CA: ODN, We've Done' 'Who We Are Network (San Francisco, (ODN), 44 The Capacity of the United Nations 'The Consensus: 2688 (XXV), Resolution UN General Assembly Than Altruism: 43 The Overseas 45 11 December 1971). (New York: United Nations, Development System' For multilateral 1993, p. 88; 1994, p. 76; 1997, pp. 60-71; Cooperation, grants, see DAC, Development are distribution statistics of their geographical 1998, pp. 77-87. For NGO grants, no worldwide and the Third available. See, for example, Smith, More Than Altruism; Burnell, Charity, Politics, and the State in J. Lewis (eds.), Non-Governmental and David World; John Farrington Organizations Thiele and Graham Asia (New York: Routledge, (eds.), Non 1993); Anthony Bebbington in Latin America and the State Governmental (New York: Routledge, 1993); Kate Organizations and the State in Africa Wellard and James G Copestake (New Organizations (eds.), Non-Governmental Office States General Accounting 1993); United Routledge, and Limitations, Contributions Report Voluntary Organizations' on International House of Representatives' Committee Relations, November GAO/NSIAD-96-34, 1995). York: Private (GAO), 'Foreign Assistance: to the Ranking Minority Member, DC: U.S. GAO, (Washington, 41

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The moral politics

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states similarly and humanitarian focus make this basic anonymity Although sense in the described above, multilateral grant aid differs from NGO beneficent giving in two key respects. First, the intermediaries are inclusive organisations, which to all states and include both donors and recipients on policy extend membership The Executive Board of the UNDP and the UN Fund boards.46 for making 12 for of donor and 24 recipient states, and (UNFP), example, consists Population to recipients is determined the amount of funding allocated by formula.47 Second, the ethical justification for this type of foreign aid is just as likely to emphasise international peace as prosperity, advancing the larger aims of the United Nations, are affiliated.48 In both respects, this with which most multilateral aid organisations as realising a civic, to NGOs from individual donations practice can be distinguished as opposed to religious or philanthropic, in this case, to the virtue, contributing, and well-ordering of the community of states. The conception of giving well-being as a civic virtue is most associated with Aristotle, who identified it as the outward in his view was an sign of 'liberality' (that is, the character of a free citizen). Giving a citizen's of loyalty to the community that secured and defended expression for Aristotle, of course, being the city-state of Athens).49 (the community Multilateral extend traditions of grant aid is also historically new. Whereas NGOs aid organisations, such as the giving that date back hundreds of years, multilateral UN Children's Fund of the UNDP, the 1946) and the forerunner (UNICEF, of Technical Assistance (EPTA, 1949), emerged only in the Expanded Programme under 1940s, within a few years of the great flowering of international organisations the auspices of the United States.50 Following the establishment of the grant Fund (1964) and the merger of the EPTA and UN funding European Development freedom

46

some NGOs are membership the majority of them are non-membership organisations, Partners? Non-Governmental John Farrington and Anthony Reluctant organisations. Bebbington, The State and Sustainable Organizations, Agricultural (New York: Routledge, Development 1993), pp. 3-5. 47 of the Executive Board' <http://www.undp.org.execbrd/memberseng.htm> UNDP, 'Membership (27 to the Review Board of the UNDP, Additional Information of the April 2002); Executive Relating Successor 14 December DP/1999/CRP.3, Programming Arrangements' (New York: UNDP, 1998); Though Board of the UNDP, 'The Successor Programming Arrangements: Preliminary for the Target for Resource Assignment from the Core for the Period 2001-2003) Earmarkings (New 16March York: UNDP, consist of eight African and states, seven Asian DP/1999/27, 1999). Members one states (including Pacific states, five Latin American and Caribbean states, four Eastern European states. Note states among OECD member), and 12 OECD member that a few of the 24 recipient the Executive Board members also give foreign aid. DAC, Development 2000, p. 263. Cooperation, 48 The Charter of the United Nations of Public Information, DPI/511, (New York: UN Department in September progress, 1993) focuses on peace and security as much as social and economic reprinted law and order, and human rights. The UNDP's current international decolonisation, emphasising can also be understood as enhancing focus on global governance from this perspective the well-being and well-ordering of 'poor countries and poor people' within the world community. Human UNDP, Press, 1999), pp. 11-3, 97-114; UNDP, (New York: Oxford University Report Development Governance for Sustainable Growth and Equity: Report of International at the United Conference 28-30 July 1997 (New York: UNDP Nations, 1998). 49 trans. Ernest Barker, revised R. F Stanley Politics, Aristotle, Press, (New York: Oxford University See also T. H. Irwin, 'Generosity and Property in Aristotle's Social Polities', 1995), 1263a30-bl4. and Policy, 4 (1987), pp. 37-54. Philosophy 50 on a quasi-multilateral The Marshall Plan was organised basis. Aid from the United States was to a multilateral distributed the Organisation for European Economic recipient organisation, to the Organisation for Economic (OEEC), which was the direct precursor Cooperation Cooperation and Development 1985, pp. 65-6. (OECD). Hogan, The Marshall Plan, pp. 127-88. DAC, Development Cooperation, Executive

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Tomohisa Hattori

(1965), they also grew strongly between the mid-1960s Special Fund into the UNDP and the mid-1970s, from 0.02 to 0.04 per cent of donor GNP.51 roughly doubling to NGOs, Donations by contrast, have remained fairly constant at about 0.03 per cent of donor GNP since the early 1970s (see Table 1).
Table 1. The percentage share of NGO and multilateral in economic aid.

grants

1960-4 Multi NGO

Notes: * Key

1965-9 5.9* na
grant as

1970-4 10 11
aid

1975-9 12 8

1980-4 13 9

1985-9 12 13* 9
and the

1990-4 14* 9
second

1995-9

4.6* na

10
European

multilateral

agencies, are

such

as

the UNDP

Development
European Treaty, All the

Fund (EDF), were reorganised in themiddle of the 1960s. If grants from

the EDF, grants classified 11 per as bilateral cent aid after 1990s the Maastricht and 5.3 per total cent becomes in the early refers

such organisations, share of multilateral

in the late 1990s.

figures are based on net disbursements. 'Economic aid' to the sum of official

development assistance (ODA) by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member states and private foreign aid by NGOs. Thus, economic aid in the 1960s equals ODA. 'Multi' refers to grant aid provided by multilateral grant aid organisation (thus excluding grants by
multilateral international development grants banks or the International Monetary Fund). 'NGO' refers to private by NGOs.

Source: DAC, Development Assistance, 1960, p. 18; 1963, p. 80; 1965, pp. 128-9; 1967, pp. 77, 81, 91, 185; 1968, pp. 75, 260-1; 1969, pp. 304-5; 1971, pp. 165, 172. DAC, Development Cooperation, 1972, pp. 215, 222; 1974, pp. 233, 261, 317, 320; 1975, pp. 195, 202-3, 217, 230, 256; 1976, pp. 214-5; 1977, pp. 172-3, 188, 197, 235; 1978, pp. 191, 201-2, 216, 228-30, 238-9, 273; 1979, pp. 210-1, 226, 238-9; 1980, pp. 184-5, 200, 209, 237; 1981, pp. 180-1, 196, 205; 1982, pp. 178-9, 204^5, 233, 251; 1983, pp. 226-7; 1984, pp. 201, 214, 244-5, 262, 318-9; 1985, pp. 331, 335; 1986, pp. 238, 268-9, 284, 289; 1987, pp. 198, 204, 240-1, 256; 1988, pp. 184, 187, 190, 230-1, 249; 1989; pp. 230, 264-7; 1990, pp. 188, 208, 248-51, 264, 269; 1991; pp. 230-1, 246; 1992, pp. A8, A32, A38, A70-A73, A87; 1993, p. 239; 1994, pp. A3, A4, A9, A10, D4, K4, LI; 1995, pp. A42, A95; 1998, pp. A3, A4, A37, A42, A91, A92, A96; 1999, pp. 164-5, 168-9, 203; 2001, pp. 231, 237, 242, 284. In combination, these observations aid as the ethical core of identify multilateral a larger institutionalisation of foreign aid in the postwar era. What originated and as a bilateral face-to-face still predominates has been redefined practice progressively and legitimised as a collective endeavour of the former colonising states, expressing a civic virtue specific to the community of states. Following this argument, the most

51

1985, pp. 68-74. Development Cooperation, see Lester B. Pearson aid organisations, de Oliviera Campos, C. Douglas Dillon, Wilfred Guth, W. Arthur (with Sir Edward Boyle, Roberto on in Development: and Saburo Okita), Partners Lewis, Robert E. Marjolin, Report of the Commission International Council of the UNDP, A (New York: Praeger, 1969); and the Governing Development of the United Nations Study of the Capacity Development System' [presented on 30 June 1969] (New 30 June 1969), written York: United Nations, DP/5, by Robert G A. Jackson. The 'Pearson Report' aid was the most effective means of assisting developing the countries, while argued that multilateral 'Jackson Report' recommended that the UNDP become the core agency for all UN development activities.

of the 1960s, the Trust Fund for Population DAC, (currently known as the UN Fund for Population). to these international On the effort to increase donations

In the course

Activities

was

also

established

in 1967

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The moral politics

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aid

241

like the UNDP but the Develop significant agency is not an aid-giving organisation ment Assistance for Economic Committee (DAC) of the Organisation Cooperation in January 1960, just as the decolonisation and Development (OECD). Established of Africa was reaching its peak, the sole purpose of the DAC has been to monitor states and multilateral the foreign aid programmes of donor and evaluate aid as Jacques Le Goff put it, organisations.52 This makes it the new 'moral bookkeeper' or the authenticator of foreign aid as a virtuous practice. To elaborate briefly, each year the DAC produces an annual report that statistic to various measures of 'effort'. It includes the per ally ranks donors according to centage of foreign aid in a donor's GNP, the relative share of grants as opposed loans, bilateral as opposed to multilateral aid, aid to the least developed countries as to former colonies, and other components of the overall mix, such as opposed technical aid, food aid, and long-term development-oriented aid.53 Every two years or so, each donor is subject to extensive 'peer review' by two or three other donor secretariat states, using data provided (the OECD by the DAC Development Centre), the findings of which become the basis for a general review and evaluation summarise these rankings reports, which in ethical judgements. For example, they the United States and Japan for their low per capita contribu routinely admonish tion: '[t]he world's have accounted for practically all of the real largest economies fall in ODA in recent years'.55 They also routinely praise the programmes of the states as the standard of excellence. In the 1999 report, for example, the Scandinavian were described as the DAC's four Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark Norway, to which sustain their excellent The 'front-runners', 'promised performance'.56 annual reports also contain perhaps the strongest ethical justifications of foreign aid as a civic virtue. As the first DAC report asserted in 1962: '[t]here are few issues of annual also abound such fundamental less developed importance countries'.57 for world peace and prosperity as that of aid to the by the entire membership.54 and peer review processes, The

52

called the 'Development Assistance it was formally into the OECD Originally Group', incorporated in September OECD 1961. See Ryouhei Murata, and [The Organisation for Economic Cooperation The Largest Think-Tank in the World] Shinsho, Development: 2000), pp. 7-12, (Tokyo: Chuukou 80-102.

53 Assistance, 1961-1972; Development Cooperation, Development 1973-present. 54 is one of five committees The DAC of the OECD that undertakes such peer reviews. The other are: the Environmental committees the Economic and Development Review Policy Committee, on Capital Movements on the Committee and Invisible Transactions, and the Committee Committee, International Investment and Multinational See Murata, OECD, pp. 63-5, 82-3. DAC, Enterprise). 123-7. The full 'peer review' evaluations have been 1996, pp. 63-5, Development Cooperation, 55 56 since 1994. published DAC, Development Cooperation, member countries). 1998, pp. 93 (also, pp. 93-127 for more details of the evaluation of

are routinely distinguished as Ibid., 1999, pp. 52^1. The Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark Norway, the DAC's four 'front-runners'. See also ibid., 1972, p. 11; 1980, p. 16; 1990, pp. 132-3; DAC, Review 1999, no. 33: Denmark Cooperation 1999), p. 73. (Paris: OECD, Development 57 societies which will Assistance, 1962, p.7. The 1968 report elaborated: Development '[cheating modern as development become more like-minded should facilitate the building of a world proceeds with institutions which can reduce the dangers of global war'. (1968, p. 17). This ethical community, is periodically The 1996 report, for example, asserted 'an enlightened self justification re-emphasised. interest in a stable world community to is regarded as a key motivation for donors as aid is deemed reduce migration environmental and war risks and enhance the solidarity for pressures, degradation, all people with one another'. Development 1996, pp. 15-6. Cooperation,

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Tomohisa Hattori

to shape the A good indication that such public scrutiny and praise has worked a more states to of aid and donor beneficent standard is programmes foreign policies the steady decline of 'tied aid', or the practice of conditioning aid on procurement in the donor country, a practice from suppliers that turns foreign aid into an extension of domestic pork-barrel Table politics (see targeted by the 2).58 Expressly in the 1960s, 'tied aid' declined DAC from two thirds of official development in the early 1960s to less than one third by the early 1980s, with sharp assistance decreases even among the worst offenders, such as Japan.59 Another indication is the gradual 'softening' in the programmes of aid, or the steady increase in the proportion of grants to loans of donor states (see Table 3). Also targeted by DAC in the 1960s,

Table 2. The percentage share of partially and wholly tied aid in total ODA and bilateral aid. Early 1960s Tied/ODA Tied/Bi-aid
Notes: All figures

1972 na 44 38 32 na 54 42 19
commitment

1982/3 average

1992

2000

67 (estimate) na
are based on net

figures.

'Tied'

refers

to the partially

and

wholly tied portion of aid. 'ODA' refers to the total multilateral and bilateral official development aid given by the DAC members. 'Bi-aid' refers to the total bilateral official
development Sources: aid. DAC, The data from the early 1960s 1962, are estimated 1964, by p. 51, the DAC. 1965, p. 120-1; DAC, Assistance, p. 35;

Development

Development Cooperation,

1974, p. 248; 1985, p. 299; 1994, p. F4; 1999, p. 21; 2001, p. 245.

Table

3. The percentage

share

of bilateral

grant

aid

in bilateral

aid from

the DAC

member

states.

1975 1965 Bi-grant/Bi-aid

Notes: aid. All

1985

1995 2000

49

81 8892 66
on net bilateral disbursement official figures. development to bilateral refers 'Bi-grant' aid (ODA). The calculation grant is

'Bi-aid'

are based figures to the total refers

based on the disbursement figures that do not include the debt forgiveness of past loans in the total of either bilateral grant aid or bilateral ODA. Sources: DAC, Development Assistance, 1967, pp. 77, 81, 185; 1968, pp. 260-3; DAC, Development Cooperation 1979, p. 226; 1987, pp. 240-1, 256; 1988, pp. 230-1, 246; 1998, pp. A37, A43; 2000, pp. 180-1; 2001, p. 231.
58

On

the effort

to increase multilateral of

aid

in the 1960s and

1970s,

see Development

Cooperation,

1985,

pp. 71-4. 59 For a discussion

'tied aid', see DAC, Development 1963, p. 35; 1964, p. 51; 1965, pp. Assistance, see 1976, p. 75; 1980, p. 158; 1994, p. 29. On the policy decisions, Cooperation, 1987, pp. 177-80; 1974, pp. 191-3; 1984, pp. 169-70; 1986, pp. 195-209; Development Cooperation, of the tied aid practice, 1994, pp. 27-32. On this view of foreign aid, using the worst offender Japan, see Margee (New York: Columbia Ensign, Doing Good or Doing Well? Japans Foreign Aid Program Shinbun Press, 1992); Mainichi (ed.), Kokusai Enjo Bijinesu: ODA wa Dou University Tsukawareteiruka Aid Business: How ODA Is Spent] (Tokyo: Yagi Shobou, 1990). On [International see MITI, Keizai Kyouryoku no Genjou toMondaiten the Japanese effort to untie aid in response, and Problems Kakuron of Economic Cooperation: (Tokyo: Ministry Specific Arguments] [The Reality 120-1; Development of International Trade and Industry, 1989), pp. 771-95.

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The moral politics

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aid

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as a major policy issue as the debt burden of this aim was consistently re-emphasised through the 1980s.60 By 2000, about 90 per cent of all recipient countries deepened states was in the form of grants; and aid from DAC member bilateral development ten of the 22 members gave all of their foreign aid in grants.61 Within the larger context of the social relation between donor and recipient, of however, one can also recognise a less salutary effect of this institutionalisation as advancing era. Although understood the common foreign aid in the postwar interests of all states, the actual practice of giving foreign aid and, by extension, the is practically limited to the wealthy few. This basic moral public scrutiny and praise on distinction is reinforced in this case by the exclusivity of the DAC. Membership this committee is even more limited than its parent agency, the OECD, which is often criticised as an exclusive club of wealthy states: none of the new states added to the OECD also appear humanitarian since the end of the Cold War have joined this committee.62 DAC members to guard their status as donor, in some case to the point of rejecting their self-sufficiency. assistance from other states, thus demonstrating Japan, for example, very publicly rejected offers of aid in the wake of the Kobe of 1995.63 What this suggests is that the DAC not only authenticates earthquake a as aid virtuous thus legitimising the virtuous use of material wealth practice, foreign an but fixes ethical boundary between donor and recipient donor also states, by hierarchy across and evaluating,

to the material this ethical boundary states.64 Because corresponds which these gifts are given, the tendency of all this monitoring, ranking is to recast the material as a moral order of things.

Foreign

aid and the community

of states

To briefly summarise this inquiry into the moral dimension of foreign aid, this of states to multilateral article has identified the donations grant-giving organis of foreign aid in the postwar ations as the ethical core of a larger institutionalisation

60

See DAC, Development Assistance, 1964, pp. 97-9; 1965, pp. 119-20; 1968, p. 251; 1969, pp. 223-35; 1970, p. 164; 1971, p. 151-9. On the preferential softening of the terms of aid to the UN-designated see ibid., 1972, p. 209. least developed countries, 61 2000, p. 226; 2001, p. 242. DAC, Development Cooperation, 62 Czech Republic, and South Korea have not joined the DAC. See Murata, Mexico, Poland, Hungary, and pp. 18-9, 34-6, on the difficulty of joining the OECD, pp. 50-2, on the 'clubby atmosphere', 'club' in the case of South Korea. An original member of the OECD, Turkey, has not joined the and Greece DAC, 1992, p. 22 on membership Cooperation, joined only recently. See Development to Greece, and Turkey; 2000, p. 1 on current membership. invitations Iceland, Luxembourg, 63 to Accept Help From Abroad for Quake Victims', New York Times, 5 Feb 1995, 'Japan Reluctant p. Al. 64 to recipients, WTien scrutiny is extended the focus shifts to the very different ethical concerns of ? that is to say, not their virtues but their vices. Even here, the OECD and 'corruption' 'competence' states that have few between the recipient plays an active role in helping establish an ethical boundary to monitor and the donor states that are increasing effective anti-bribery their capacity and policies on Combating to the OECD Convention their own private contractors criminalise by adhering to Foreign Public Officials in International thanks to the peer review process. Business, Bribery inDeveloping Countries and Emerging Economies: The Role of the Private OECD, Fighting Corruption on Corruption, 22-23 February 1999 (Paris: Development Centre of the Sector, Washington Conference OECD, 1999), pp. 6-7.

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Tomohisa H at tor i

era as a collective endeavour of the former colonising states. What in a bilateral face to-face relation merely and the hierarchies of the material signals euphemises a world is in this transformed into virtuous process postwar practice, ethically to the peace and prosperity of the community of states. This justified as contributing article has further argued that the key organisation behind this institutionalisation not is the but the Development multilateral Assistance process agencies grant-giving Committee of the OECD. and By setting the standards, monitoring, evaluating, of member the aid states, the DAC has assumed the new role programmes ranking of 'moral bookkeeper', and encouraging authenticating foreign aid as a virtuous this article has that such ethical discourses and forms of practice. Finally, argued public scrutiny and praise have indeed created an incentive, if not to increase, then

to conform the practice of foreign aid to more beneficent standards. It is this institutionalisation the empirical substance behind process, in short, that constitutes President Truman's original claim that foreign aid is a moral practice, embodying moral vision and intent. There are two implications of this specification of the empirical substance behind the ethical claims for foreign aid. First, it extends the metatheoretical insight of Alexander Wendt that states are ontologically real by demonstrating that they are also capable of ethical justification. The ethical discourses and forms of public in this article not only attribute virtue to states but scrutiny and praise described a collective practice where none would have have real effects: they have encouraged to higher ethical existed; and they have disciplined practices existing bilateral of foreign aid in the postwar era constitutes, in standards.65 The institutionalisation of interstate relations. short, an empirically significant moral dimension second implication is that these particular ethical discourses and practices are a across material of moral old distinction lines: they are very pattern fostering to states the dominant that donor role have assumed in the post legitimise helping war world as an ethically justified desert, over and above the imperatives of power politics or market forces. Like the civic virtue identified with the practice of foreign aid above, this larger process can also be identified with Aristotle, only in this case, not his virtue ethics but his politics. A closer reading of Aristotle suggests, in fact, his ethics of giving in service of his larger political ideal of civic that he compromised or the rule of the virtuous few over the mass.66 Although Aristotle's republicanism, to all citizens, he created two special categories of giving extended encouragement for 'great gifts', arguing in numerous passages that they deserved greater praise. The or 'great deed', and magnanimity, or 'greatness of virtues expressed magnificence, The

65

In Wendt's strategic 279-312.

terms, national

the simple reciprocity of a 'Lockean' world characterised they have gone beyond interests or expanding market forces. See Social Theory of International Politics,

by pp.

66

Aristotle's practical

a mixed of aristocratic rule. Though theory was a rationalisation polity was the political the best of 'polity' (ideal democracy), and ideal, combining (ideal oligarchy), 'aristocracy' because it was unlikely that a single ruler would possess all the requisite (ideal monarchy), 'kingship' in citizenry at large, Aristotle such virtues were unevenly distributed virtues to lead and because was the best form of political reasoned that aristocracy rule. See Aristotle, trans. Ernest Politics, 3 and 4. For this Barker, revised R. F. Stanley Press, 1995), Books (New York: Oxford University see especially Wood and Wood, Class Ideology and Ancient Political work, reading of Aristotle's For republican in IR, see Nicholas traditions G Onuf, The Republican in Theory, pp. 209-53. Legacy International Thought (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

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The moral politics soul' - were

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aid

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regarded as superior to the liberality of ordinary citizens.67 In short, he 'the sweet bait of honor' in the service of his city.68 Though strategically embraced the archaic language of virtue is absent, the public ranking and peer review pro cesses of the DAC have similarly set the great givers of the postwar era against one for honour in the the conditions and purposes of a competition another, establishing community of states. Liberal political theory, of course, has moved substantially beyond civic republic anism in the modern interstate relations, it provides the basis era.69 In contemporary both for a political discourse of rights that strongly resists any claim of virtue on the states and for a substantive part of the wealthy political agenda of international taxation and other measures that, it is argued, could rectify current inequalities and in this article imply that the actual better realise such rights.70 The arguments at odds with of foreign aid is fundamentally this liberal project. This practice in the type of resource distinction emerges, first, as a basic categorical opposition allocation a liberal project of rights requires some form of entailed: whereas centralised apparatus to redistribute resources from the wealthy to the poorer states, foreign aid remains a gift, a voluntary gesture of the wealthy states.71 It also follows from a further specification of aid practice within the anthropological literature of as an to not aid works but rather to giving: unreciprocated gift, foreign mitigate

67

As Aristotle magnificent must also in keeping why a poor

it: 'magnificence surpasses are great and suitable, and take account of who the agent is with that and must be suited not man to be magnificent; is unlikely put man

in scale. . . the expenses of a generosity [liberality] ... we so are, consequently, the results which he produces must be and what these resources are, for the expenditures only to the result achieved but also to the spender. That is for he does not have the means for a suitable

of large sums'. See Nicomachean 1122b25-30. Ethics, 1122b20-25, 1122M-5, expenditure 'High as its very name suggests, seems to be concerned with great and lofty mindedness [magnanimity], . . . matters to high-mindedness. Gifts of fortune, it is believed, also contribute Men of noble birth, of are regarded as worthy of honour, since they occupy a superior position, and power, or of wealth whatever in goodness is superior is held in greater honour. That is why the gifts of fortune make men more high-minded, for they are honoured (for having them).' Ibid., 1123a35-1123bl, by some people 1124a20-25. 68 This is a timocratic Nicomachean On this interpretation Ethics, Book 4 and 1163M-15. competition. see especially W. F. R. Hardie, of Aristotle's Nicomachean in Aristotle's Ethics, Ethics', 'Magnanimity 23 (1978), pp. 63-79; and Eckart Schutrumph, and the Phronesis, 'Magnanimity, Megalopsychia, 71 (1989), pp. 10-22. der Philosophie, Nicomachean Ethics', Archiv fur Geschichte System of Aristotle's 69 For two good liberal critiques of civic republican virtue ethics, see Alan Gewith, 'Private and Positive Rights', Social Philosophy and Policy, 4 (1987), pp. 55-78; and John Rawls, Philanthropy A Theory of Justice Press, 1971), especially pp. 103-8, 310-15. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University See also Robert Dahl, who criticises civic republicanism for exclusivity and faults the related of 'guardianism' for relaxing (which extends the notion of virtue to technical excellence) philosophy what he regards as an imperative for democratic See his Democracy and Its Critics (New participation. 52-79. Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989), pp. 24-33, 70 For a see UNDP, discussion of the efforts to tax emissions and foreign exchange Human transactions, Press, 1999), pp. 12, 108, 113. See Development Report (New York: Oxford University Its Structure and New and Specific Ways 'Policy Review: The Future Role of UNDP, on an Increasingly Resources Continuous and Assured Basis' Predictable, Mobilizing United Nations, dated 5 April DP/1982/15, 1982). 71 as a type of redistribution aid is often confused This Foreign (international welfare). extends also UNDP, and Means (New York: of

confusion to the correspondence liberal scholars traditions and high per strong welfare identify between of foreign aid in certain donor states. Therefore, this observation undermines the capita contributions to use this correspondence as evidence of the causal power of ideas. See Lumsdaine, liberal attempt Moral Therien and Alain Noel, Vision, especially, 183-6; and Jean-Philippe pp. 119-21, 167-70, 'Welfare Institutions and Foreign Aid: Domestic Foundations 27 ( 1994), pp. 529-58. Journal of Political Science, of Canadian Foreign Policy', Canadian

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246

Tomohisa Hattori

hierarchies between the North the existing material and the South.72 euphemise even the between aid and the liberal ideals characterises foreign Finally, opposition most the of beneficent of multilateral states, where grants portion foreign aid, to domination shifts ethical discourses. As this article has argued at some symbolic as of aid the institutionalisation collective endeavour of the former length, foreign as to to states works confirm the virtue of donors the rights of colonising opposed What the successive of the of aid add up to foreign recipients. specifications practice a whereas liberal of is a fundamental rights entails a political opposition: project in power from the industrialised states, the moral politics of foreign aid the power they already have.73 legitimises in the ethical justific this article reveals a fundamental confusion By extension, in the liberal tradition noted in the introduction. ations for foreign aid Identifying to the poorer of the wealthy states, for foreign aid as an 'imperfect obligation' the failure to example, fails to see that it is the recipient's obligation specifically - that this practice, compelling gestures of gratitude operationalises reciprocate a gift to give in the status quo, instead.74 Identifying the motivation and acquiescence 'moral vision' fails to see the 'moral hierarchy' that foreign aid as a humanitarian across material can arise when such a practice is institutionalised lines.75 Finally, relation as a 'moral doctor-moral the donor-recipient patient' relation identifying real shift misses in a virtue the necessary fiction of moral agency on the part of recipients 'as if they had moral centric world. Only by treating recipients agency can the agency of donors superior moral emerge.76 In short, while all of these ethical and improve identify with liberal ideals of rights, humanitarianism, justifications

the aid practice ment, effect, anticipating they justify tends towards the opposite into a right, the mitigation of a neither the eventual perfection of donors' obligation material hierarchy, nor the remedy of a diseased condition. In the 1996 DAC report, Chair, James H. Michel, warned of 'deeply entrenched gaps between theory and practice' and 'patterns of donor activism and recipient

72 73

realism and world with the basic insight of political This observation, system theory again, consistent hierarchies of the postwar world. that foreign aid arises more or less directly from the material can also work the other way. With in the the election of a Labour government Of course, the politics in 1945, a political United Kingdom agenda of redistributive rights finally won the day, successfully of the job of alleviating law on charities, which had given a fair portion scrapping a four-century-old the

to private philanthropists. had to be also dismantled first under But the charity discourse poverty in the 1930s before the full legal change could take place. Owen, of the economic collapse weight Act of 1948. Assistance 532, 547-53 on the National pp. 501-11, English Philanthropy, 74 is Towards Justice and Virtue, pp. 136^11. The problem with this deontological O'Neill, argument in which a specific obligation arises. failure to specify the social relation 75 Vision. The problem with this humanitarian is the failure to anticipate Moral Lumsdaine, argument as beneficence. moral hierarchy when giving is institutionalised 76 and Economic and Strout, The Stages of Economic Growth; Chenery Rostow, 'Foreign Assistance is 'When Agents Cannot Act'. The problem with this utilitarian Navari, argument Development'; a strategic in the analysis of social practice, the temporal failure to appreciate sequence especially

a one

see in giving practice, of misrecognition like giving. On this point and the significance (or fiction) states and quasi differences between Bourdieu, Outline, pp. 4-7. On the legal fiction and substantive International and the Third World Relations, states, see Robert H. Jackson, Quasi-States: Sovereignty, to Press, 1990); Toni Erskine, Assigning University Responsibilities (New York: Cambridge 15 Ethics and International The Case of States and Quasi-States', Institutional Moral Agents: Affairs, 80-1. (2001), pp. 67-85, especially

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of foreign

aid

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passivity' consistent with the argument I have just laid out. To 'change incentives', focus or he went on to argue, required substantially more than a new programmatic It and implementation. in development planning greater recipient participation and hard work yet another virtue ethic that has infused the required self-discipline discourse of foreign aid from the start. As he put it:
we can exercise will the disciplined If, as partners, come to be the strategy, its vision will implement the effort, it will become If we do not make future. no more than a cruel mirage.77 to address seen the contradictions prediction that the of and to as a realistic apparent a better projects

equally

strategy

77

DAC,

Development

Cooperation,

1996, pp.

10-11.

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