Human Rights and Foreign Aid

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Abstract
Although President Carter spoke forcefully about the importance of human rights in his foreign policy, President Reagan disavowed such a claim. A number of scholars have gone beyond the rhetoric and estimated the relationship between foreign aid allocations and human rights in the two administrations; few have found significant differences. This research differs from past work by using data from all but two of the recipient countries of U.S. aid and by employing an incremental model of decision making to explain the pattern of aid allocations. Contrary to the author's expectations, the author concludes that a concern for human rights was more prevalent in the foreign aid allocations of the Reagan administration than in the aid allocations of the Carter administration.