Foreign Aid in the Age of Populism

Viktor Jakupec is a Professor at Deakin University, Australia and the University of Potsdam, Germany.Max Kelly is a senior academic in International and Community Development at Deakin University, Australia.

"A provocative, innovative effort to re-politicize and re-think political economy analysis as a tool of development aid through an examination of the implications of larger currents of international political change, including the rise of populism and illiberalism and China's growing role in the developing world." — Thomas Carothers, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, USA"The book provides a timely, critical and thought-provoking analysis of the impact of contemporary challenges on decision making in orthodox development institutions. Political Economy Analysis is critically reviewed as an evaluation tool, leading to an insightful call for theoretical frameworks for PEA couched in an International Political Economy paradigm." — Lisheng Dong, Professor, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, PR China and University of Tartu, Estonia"Jakupec and Kelly provide a compelling analysis of the contemporary development agenda. Their plea to apply a theoretically grounded political economy analysis to foreign aid is an important contribution to the debate. This book is a must read for everyone interested in the critical examination of the dominant neoliberal paradigm of development." — Wil Hout, Professor, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands"Jakupec and Kelly provide cutting-edge insights into contemporary complexities of foreign aid marked by the rise of populism, de-globalisation, and illiberal democracy. This highly innovative, timely and important book deserves to be read widely and carefully by scholars and development practitioners interested in better understanding the geopolitics of foreign aid." — Susanne Soederberg, Professor, Department of Global Development Studies, Queen’s University, Canada

• 1. Introduction 2. Political Economy Analysis: A Distorted View of Reality 3. Political Economy Analysis: Deficiencies and Critiques 4. Unpacking Political Economy Analysis in a Foreign Aid Context 5. Populism: Challenging Socio-economic Orthodoxy 6. The Challenge of Illiberal Democracy 7. De-globalisation: Challenging the Foreign Aid Agenda 8. Beijing Consensus: Challenging the dominant Washington Consensus 9. Politicisation of Political Economy Analysis 10. [Re] Locating Political Economy Analysis: Theoretical Constructs and Practical Undertakings 11. Foreign aid: Political Economy Analysis at Crossroads