Tension between ideals and realityThe change in Philippine policy toward the Millennium Challenge may have more to do with the aid giver than with the aid receiver. In a famous paper, the American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington observed a tension between American ideals and the institutions that are necessary to practice modern government. New approach to foreign aidMoralism, as Huntington has described it, has evidently reshaped the American foreign aid program. This new approach to foreign development aid presents both an opportunity to encourage good governance as well as a serious danger of US political agendas manipulating foreign aid to serve partisan interests. The United States, in organizing US foreign aid around specific indicators of what it considers “good governance,” is necessarily impacting both the political and legal environments of developing countries seeking results-based foreign aid.

Source: Manila Times December 20, 2017 17:03 UTC