The new era of german development policy

Keywords
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Issue Date
2020-06-28
Language
en
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The mechanisms related to the allocation of aid and their effectiveness has been subject of debate for the past three decades. Germany, one of the largest providers of aid to developing countries, responded by undertaking a drastic shift in its development policy towards Africa. Through the elaboration of specific initiatives for increasing private investments in Africa, among which the “G20 Compact with Africa” of 2017 is the most prominent, Germany promoted a different approach for fostering economic growth in the continent and overcome the old methods of aid allocation. This thesis analyses the main factors that led to this shift through the usage of the theories of neomercantilism and social constructivism. The results, reached through process-tracing and document analysis, indicates that social constructivism has more explanatory value. By following the stages of norm life cycle theory, stemming from social constructivism, it is argued that Germany has been successfully socialized in a new norm on development policy promoted at the international level. Therefore, after having internalized the norm at the national level, Germany undertook a different approach to development towards Africa.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen