A quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the National Endowment for Democracy

Abstract

Billions of dollars have been spent to promote democracy and economic freedom through U.S. foreign aid, but little is known about its impact. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is the leading U.S. organization that promotes democracy and economic freedom throughout the world. Since its founding, NED has been the subject of immense discussion and controversy. The goal of this dissertation is to provide insight into the promotion of democracy and economic freedom through an analysis of NED’s activities during the 1990s. The analysis does not find evidence that NED was successful at promoting democracy and economic freedom during the 1990s. Even though NED grant money appears to have been appropriately awarded to countries based on their need, the grant money did not have a significant impact on political and economic freedom. This calls into question the wisdom of using the U.S. government’s scarce resources to promote democracy and economic freedom – not only through NED, but in any similar manner.