Aid Strategies of an Asian Democracy: The Formation of Japanese Governance and Democracy Promotion in the Field

Sammanfattning: This is a study of the promotion of democracy and governance as a part of Japan’s official development cooperation. Despite being one of few Asian democracies among aid donors, Japan’s work with democracy and governance has largely been overlooked in the discussion of its aid programme. This research seeks to expand on the current literature by examining what factors and driving forces interact to shape the form Japanese governance aid takes in the field. This inductive examination is based on a field study interviewing Japanese aid personnel working on governance projects in the in Cambodia and Vietnam. It centres what these bureaucrats perceive to be the key driving forces of Japanese aid. I argue that three key features interact to shape these aid projects: National interests, Japanese political culture, as well as discretionary power exercised by state employees and NGOs funded by the government. The study conceptualizes aid workers as Street-level bureaucrats possessing important knowledge of how policy is adapted into practice. It finds that the driving forces shaping the outcome of Japanese democracy and governance promotion are highly complex and interdependent, both affected by historical and social factors, national interests and foreign policy, as well as the individual judgement and opinions of street-level bureaucrats in the field. The research offers new insights into the production of aid outcomes, as well as the structure of Japanese development cooperation. It contributes to the current literature by building theory on the driving forces of democracy promotion and opens new possibilities for further empirical and critical investigation of the subject.