Development Policy Centre Podcast

The Australian aid program faces a fundamental dilemma: how, in the absence of deep popular support, should it generate the political legitimacy required to safeguard its budget and administering institutions? A new book by Jack Corbett entitled 'Australia’s Foreign Aid Dilemma: Humanitarian Aspirations Confront Democratic Legitimacy', tells the story of the actors who have grappled with this question over 40 years. It draws on extensive interviews and archival material to uncover how ‘court politics’ shapes both aid policy and administration. The lesson for scholars and practitioners is that any holistic understanding of the development enterprise must account for the complex relationship between the aid program of individual governments and the domestic political and bureaucratic contexts in which it is embedded. If the way funding is administered shapes development outcomes, then understanding the ‘court politics’ of aid matters. In this podcast and subsequent Q&A of the Canberra book launch, author Ja