| I noted in the application for this stipend that in previous reseach
I have come across references to public opinion as a potential variable
that may affect foreign aid decision making. Public opinion about foreign
aid is frequently reported in official documents in donor countries and
international organizations, such as the OECD. There exists, however, practically
no research that systematically compares public opinion on aid across countries
except at the most superficial level. Practically all comparative studies
of public opinion and foreign aid simply ask either whether the public
supports current levels of foreign aid spending or how much the public
in each country knows about foreign aid. Questions about the impact of
public opinion on geographic and sectoral distribution of aid, quality
of aid, etc. go unanswered. |
| During the stipend period I gathered public opinion polls related to
foreign aid from Japan, the United States, Australia, the European Union,
Ireland, Norway, and Sweden. A graduate student assisted in the collection
and collation of that data. I also investigated previous scholarly research
on the topic. Analysis of the kinds of foreign aid questions public opinion
polls ask citizens in each country presented an insurmountable obstacle
to the original research question. Simply put, there is very little that
can be compared across national public opinion polls beyoud crude measures
of public support for aid. Comparative research on the impact of public
opinion on geographic and sectoral distribution of aid, quality of aid,
etc. are impossible using the polls governments now use. Most polls (Japan's
are an exception) do not even ask these questions. Rather, each set of
polls tends to ask questions specific to the polling agency or the country.
I have detected no sense of common purpose across polls, especially between
countries. |
| These results have led me to rethink the entire project. Instead of asking
what publics think about a series of issues in foreign aid, it is more
fruitful to ask why governments ask the questions they do. In other words,
are there consistent differences among national polls on foreign aid? Are
there consistent differences between officail polls and private polls?
If so, why is this? I expect to publish the results of this new research
in Academia, with longer discussions submitted to peer-reviewed journals. I expect
to continue to expand this research in future. |
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