National attributes associated with multilateral and US bilateral aid to Latin America: 1960–1971

Proponents of multilateral aid have generally assumed that such aid is less responsive than bilateral aid to the political characteristics of recipient countries. Many critics of foreign aid have challenged this assumption, arguing that US influence ensures that multilateral programs serve the same interventionist purposes as bilateral. This study of per capita aid allocations to Latin American countries confirms that there are strong similarities in the distribution of aid. However, when the relationships between aid data and data on national attributes are examined, the results do not support the notion that political characteristics account for the similarities. For some multilateral agencies, there is little or no association between aid and recipient political attributes. For others, there are associations with political features, but the associations are not identical with those of US bilateral aid. In short, whatever the determinants behind decisions on the allocation of bilateral and multilateral aid, the same considerations with regard to the politics of potential recipients do not appear to be operating. All of this does not mean that US interests are not being served by multilateral programs. They may be served in a variety of ways, and still be consistent with the results reported here. That important issue is beyond the scope of this very limited study.