From Colonialism to International Aid

This open access volume addresses the role of external actors in social protection in the Global South, from the Second World War until today, analysing the influence of colonial powers, superpowers during the Cold War and contemporary donor agencies.

Following an introduction to the analysis of external actors in social policy making in the Global South, the contributions explore which external actors were dominant in the decades after World War II, and how they shaped early and contemporary social protection making in developing countries. The latter half of the collection elucidates important players in the contemporary transnational social policy arena, such as donor organizations and international organizations, and critically evaluates the potential for and limits of the explanatory power of external actors in social protection making in the Global South, considering the relative contribution of external and domestic influences.    

By examininghow transnational relationships and external actors have influenced the formation, development and transformation of social policies in the developing world, this collection will be an invaluable resource for scholars interested in social protection in the Global South from a range of disciplines. These include political science, social policy, and sociology, as well as historians of the welfare state, international relations scholars and scholars working on global and transnational social policy and development policy. 

“With few exceptions, social policy scholars have ignored the impact of European imperialism and colonialism on social welfare in the Global South. This book seeks to fill the gap by discussing the way social protection in many developing countries has been affected by the colonial legacy. It also examines the current role of international aid in perpetuating Western influences. It makes an important contribution and deserves to be widely read.” —James Midgley, Professor, University of California Berkeley, USA

“This volume opens a new frontier in global social policy research, the study of post-colonial countries.  Colonizing powers structured social policy regimes in their colonies well before the formation of the World Bank or ILO.  These legacies live on today in different approaches to social protection and many other areas.  This book does a great service by exploring different forms and types of influence, extending the study of global social policy back in time and outwards in geographical scope.” — Mitchell A. Orenstein, Professor, University of Pennsylvania, USA

“This volume is a broad and comprehensive study of the drivers and outcomes of social protections in developing economies.  The authors carefully explore the roles of domestic, external, transnational actors, as well as the impacts of historical legacies in the development (or not) of much needed social policies in   the Global South. By providing new perspectives and focusing on countries that most scholarship has ignored, this volume is bound to make a significant impact in the literature.” —Nita Rudra, Professor, Georgetown University, USA

Carina Schmitt is Professor of Global Social Policy, SOCIUM - Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy, University of Bremen, Germany.