Beyond strengthening civil society, we argue that aid channelled through CSOs is also linked to higher democracy levels.
CSOs educate and mobilize citizens and help hold leaders accountable. Our results show modest improvements in democracy levels.

We find that these associations to be slightly stronger in closed authoritarian regimes.This may be due to closed autocracies coming from lower levels of democracy which allow them to experience relatively larger increases in their democracy scores.

On average, a one USD per capita increase in democracy aid channelled through CSOs is associated with an increase in civil society robustness of 0.01 units on the Core Civil Society Index scale, ranging from 0 (low) to 1 (high).

We argue that earmarked democracy aid i.e.,targeted funding channelled through CSOs can strengthen CSOs capacity, is less prone to misallocation, and helps close information gaps.
We find a modest but positive impact of such aid on civil society.

Last week @nicholasaylott.bsky.social Johanna Mannergren & I did something very cool!

We hosted the first workshop on 'Contemporary Politics in the Western Balkans, 10–11 April 2025.'
We welcomed 20 distinguished scholars who focus on the Western Balkans at
@uisweden.bsky.social

Citizens with authoritarian values often vote for radical right parties. In Serbia, an interesting finding is that voters of the far-right incumbent, known for its authoritarian tendencies, are less likely to oppose cooperation with authoritarian donors.

Citizens like the least 'authoritarian regimes' even in #Serbia’s context where authoritarian values have
been on the rise. They perceive authoritarian donors are the most likely to engage in corruption and be least responsive to their demands.

Citizens perceive that democratic donors are more likely to consider citizens' complaints. However, they do not believe that cooperation with democratic donors will improve local politicians' responsiveness toward them.

Foreign aid from transparent donors is associated with less misuse of
funds and corrupt behaviour by both domestic local politicians and foreign donors.

🚨new pub 🚨
Does it matter to citizens where #foreignaid comes from? Survey experiment with citizens in #Serbia (N=2500) now on @SCID__journal :
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
I find that donors' regime and practices impact citizens' views of their local politicians and donors