The impact of Radical Right Populist Parties on international cooperation policy

This proposal bridges the gap between the literature on development cooperation and Radical Right Populist Parties (RRPPs). RRPPs are no longer single-issue parties; their establishment in national debates compels them to broaden their topics of interest, with foreign policy emerging as one of the most salient issues (Barbé & Morillas, 2019). This work explores how RRPPs frame and approach international institutions, the impact of RRPP governance on development assistance, and the motivations behind their allocation of bilateral aid. These questions are particularly pertinent in Europe, where RRPPs have become significant political actors that influence political outcomes both from the opposition and through various degrees of policy power (Abou-Chadi & Krause, 2020). On one hand, some radical right populist leaders oppose any aid provision; others see its utility in addressing national security issues, while some aim to expand the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget to promote national values and worldview (Gómez-Reino, 2019). On the other hand, despite extensive scholarship on international cooperation and foreign aid allocation criteria, variations in donor behavior remain underexplored. According to established literature, countries provide foreign aid either for selfish or altruistic reasons—to pursue political and economic domestic goals or to aid the neediest countries (Pauselli, 2019). However, recent research has identified additional predictors of variation in foreign aid allocation that require further understanding. This research proposal presents the first quantitative analysis exploring the political outcomes of RRPP influence on foreign policy. It introduces an innovative identification strategy and a novel dataset for 22 European countries. The primary hypothesis posits that multilateral aid levels decline when RRPPs are part of the government due to their anti-liberalism rhetoric. Moreover, the secondary hypothesis examines the geographical allocation criteria of bilateral aid, proposing that RRPPs are likely to disregard humanitarian concerns of needy recipients in favor of donor centric motivations such as geopolitical or economic interests.