2. Aid and the Logic of Political Survival

Zimmermann situates incumbent survival strategies as the book’s central explanatory variable. How much leaders prioritized the distribution of selective benefits to members of their ruling coalition affected not only (1) the type of US aid they received, but also (2) the aid’s effects on the state’s infrastructural and despotic power, and (3) the degree to which the recipient was willing to cede elements of its sovereignty in a relationship of international hierarchy. She also introduces the concept of “parallel institutions,” donor-financed organizations that are deployed to societies where political dynamics stymy the provision of public goods. A striking conclusion is reached: those countries that use US aid developmentally are likely to reject US geopolitical demands, whereas non-developmental recipients are likely to become loyal subordinates.