Media, Bureaucracies, And Foreign Aid: A Comparative Analysis Of The United States, The United Kingdom, Canada, France And Japan (advances In Foreign Policy Analysis)

This is the first sustained comparative examination of the importance of media attention on the provision of economic assistance, suggesting that the news media is an important medium for policy makers to gauge potential domestic political pressures and thus the need to be responsive and even anticipatory in addressing problems real or perceived. Particular attention is paid to the responsiveness of bureaucracies, long held to be among the most insulated institutions of government. Cross-national in scope, this book looks at the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Japan, facilitating a nuanced understanding of the interaction of international and domestic politics as mediated by the media. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction: The Convergence of Three Areas of Study....Pages 1-6 Foreign Aid, Foreign Policy and Bureaucratic Politics: Theories and Policy Motives....Pages 7-34 A Baseline for Further Analysis: News Media Coverage and Levels of U.S. Development Aid....Pages 35-50 A First Point of Comparison: News Coverage and British Foreign Aid....Pages 51-63 A Trusted, Elite Bureaucracy: News Coverage and French Foreign Aid....Pages 65-78 The Challenge of a Disaggregated Aid Program: News Media Coverage and Japanese Development Aid....Pages 79-102 The Multilingual Context of a Smaller Power: News Media Coverage and Canadian Development Aid....Pages 103-117 An Event-Driven Aid Program: News Media Coverage and U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance....Pages 119-136 Bureaucracy, Democracy, the Media and Foreign Aid....Pages 137-146 Back Matter....Pages 147-179 "This is the first sustained comparative examination of the importance of media attention on the provision of economic assistance. Drawing on agency theory, the authors argue that democratic bureaucracies will be responsive to the content of the news media. Bureaucrats, often seen as insulated and unresponsive, adjust their actions to match domestic political demands and the news media serve as a simple, reliable and inexpensive indicator of the domestic political importance of a subject. Cross-national in scope, this book looks at the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Japan, facilitating a nuanced understanding of the interaction of international and domestic politics as mediated by the media. The findings demonstrate clear, substantial and robust evidence of bureaucratic responsiveness to the news media."--Jacket