Defunding dissent: Restrictions on aid to NGOs

Journal of Democracy

Volumn 24, Issue 2, 2013, Pages 77-91

  Christensen, Darin ^a   Weinstein, Jeremy M ^a  

^a STANFORD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84876253041     PISSN: 10455736     EISSN: 10863214     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jod.2013.0026     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. Stephen McInerney, "Fayza Abul Naga and Cairo's Campaign Against NGOs, " www.foreignaffairs.com, 22 February 2012.
2. Fred Weir, "Russia's Expanding Definition of Treason: Transcript, " www.onthemedia. org, 28 September 2012.
3. Carl Gershman and Michael Allen, "The Assault on Democracy Assistance, " Journal of Democracy 17 (April 2006): 36-51
4. Thomas Carothers, "The Backlash Against Democracy Promotion, " Foreign Affairs 85 (March-April 2006): 62.
5. International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, "NGO Law Monitor, " 2012, www. icnl.org/research/monitor
6. USAID, "NGO Sustainability Index for Central and Eastern Europe, " 2010, www.usaid.gov/locations/europe_eurasia/dem_gov/ngoindex
7. USAID, "NGO Sustainability Index for Sub-Saharan Africa" (2010)
8. World Movement for Democracy, Country Reports, 2008 and 2011, www.wmd.org/projects/defending-civil-society/ country-reports
9. Global Integrity, "Global Integrity Reports, Assorted Years, " 2004-11, www.globalintegrity.org/report.
10. The article offers only simple tests of the face validity of these arguments. We compare the characteristics of countries that implement restrictions to those that do not. We are not focused on identifying causal effects or demonstrating the robustness of these correlations to the inclusion of other covariates.
11. Quoted in Carothers, "Backlash, " 58.
12. "Russian Parliament Gives First Approval to NGO Bill, " BBC, 6 July 2012.
13. Variables are taken from Susan Hyde and Nikolay Marinov, "Which Elections Can Be Lost?" Political Analysis 20 (Spring 2012): 191-210, available at http://hyde.research. yale.edu/nelda.
14. Mohamed Younis and Ahmed Younis, "Egyptian Opposition to U.S. and Other Foreign Aid Increases, " Gallup World, 2012, available at www.gallup.com/poll/153512/ Egyptian-Opposition-Foreign-Aid-Increases.aspx.
15. "Sins of the Secular Missionaries, " Economist, 27 January 2000.
16. We measure governance as an average from 2000 through 2010 of the "Control of Corruption" measure collected by the World Bank. Aid dependence is equal to aid as a percentage of GDP averaged from 2000 through 2008. Jan Teorell et al., "The Quality of Government Dataset, version 6Apr11, " 2011, available at www.qog.pol.gu.se.
17. "U.S. Says Russia's Law on NGOs Intimidates Rights Activists, " RIA Novosti, 25 July 2012.
18. Deputy Spokesman Robert Wood, "New Ethiopian Law Restricts NGO Activities, " U.S. Department of State press statement, 8 January 2009.
19. Yannick Demoustier, "The Next Darfur, " American Interest, July-August 2009.
20. UN Human Rights Council, "Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), " 7 December 2011, 21.
21. Seth Mydans, "Donors Asked to Withhold Aid Over Proposed Law in Cambodia, " New York Times, 7 April 2011.
22. CIVICUS, "Cambodia Must Halt Slide to Authoritarianism, " press release, 10 August 2011, available at http://civicusalpha.org/bckup_civicus.org/index.php/mediacentre/ press-releases/561-cambodia-must-halt-slide-to-authoritarianism.
23. Human Rights Watch, "Uganda: Growing Intimidation, Threats to Civil Society, " 21 August 2012, available at www.hrw.org/news/2012/08/21/uganda-growing-intimidation-threats-civil-society.
24. CIVICUS, "The State of Civil Society in Rwanda in National Development, " 31 March 2011, 29.
25. Michael Fairbanks. "Rwanda Is Not an Authoritarian Regime, " New York Times, 19 September 2012
26. Gallup, "Worldwide Tracking, " 2011.
27. Haggai Matsiko, "ACODE Under Investigation, " Independent, 9 April 2012.
28. Michael Mubangizi, "Uganda: NGOs Tell Govt-You Can Ban Us, But Not the Issues, " Observer (Kampala), 24 July 2012, available at http://allafrica.com/stories/ 201207260885.html.
29. Again, the CIVICUS reports do not suggest that Ugandan NGOs are simply more active in demanding accountability: 64 percent of respondents in Uganda (2006) assessed NGOs role in promoting transparency as "limited" or "moderate. " The comparable figure in Rwanda (2011) was 72 percent.
30. "Decree No. 24 of the President of the Republic of Belarus on the Receipt and Use of Free Foreign Aid, " 28 November 2003, Minsk, available at www.unhcr.org.
31. See ICNL's 12 May 2005 analysis of Kazakhstan's draft law at www.icnl.org/ news/2005/05-05_completeanalysisofdraftlaw.pdf.
32. Mark Lenzi, "Lost Civilization: The Thorough Repression of Civil Society in Belarus, " Demokratizatsiya 10 (Summer 2002): 418.
33. David Moore, "Safeguarding Civil Society in Politically Complex Environments, " International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law 9 (July 2007): 3-26.
34. Erica Marat, "NGO's Allege Kazakhstan Not Ready for OSCE Chairmanship, " Eurasia Daily Monitor, 19 November 2009.
35. Anne Applebaum, "In Belarus, a Slide Toward Eastern Aggression, " Washington Post, 21 December 2010.
36. Alex Walters, "Kazakhstan and Europe: Building Ties, Bridging Divides, " available at www.edgekz.com/kazakhstan-and-europe-building-ties.html.
37. European Commission, "Belarus: EU Bilateral Trade and Trade with the World, " 29 November 2012.