FROM DOMESTIC TO INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE - THE WELFARE-STATE AND FOREIGN-AID

Foreign aid often is interpreted as an international projection of dom estic income-redistribution mechanisms, and many authors suggest that differences between welfare states account for variations in donor beh avior. A new understanding of the welfare state can improve traditiona l explanations of this linkage. Existing studies of the welfare-aid re lationship use two welfare state indicators: domestic spending and par tisan politics. We propose a third type of indicator-the institutional attributes of the welfare state-and demonstrate its relevance. The le vel of foreign aid provided by a country varies with social spending, but even more so with the degree to which its welfare state embodies s ocialist attributes. This finding helps explain how domestic political institutions influence the evolution of international cooperation and , specifically, how welfare principles institutionalized at the domest ic level shape the participation of developed countries in the interna tional aid regime.