Who Supports International Development Cooperation in Times of Crisis? Public Opinion in Rural Spain

Juan Gómez-Quintero,Jesús Miguel Álvarez,Pilar Gargallo Valero

doi:10.3390/su11072027

Juan Gómez-Quintero, Jesús Miguel Álvarez + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11072027

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Apr 5, 2019
Citations: 2	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Universidad de Zaragoza

Abstract

The official development aid provided by donor countries does not solely depend on government decisions; it is also affected by trends in public opinion. This means that it is important to find out more about the opinions, views and attitudes of the citizens of donor countries. In spite of this, very few research studies have specifically analysed the opinions of people from rural areas. The aim of this research is to analyse the attitudes of the inhabitants of rural areas in northeast Spain to assess the degree of support for policies of international cooperation and development. To this end we carried out a survey of 403 people resident in small towns, selected using a stratified sampling process. We then conducted multivariate statistical techniques of the information we had gathered, in which we found that there were three types of individuals according to their level of interest, concern and action: aware but not actively involved, not interested and passive, and proactive with strong convictions. This research has shown that educational level, size of the town and age all influence the person’s interest in the problems affecting the rest of the world and their support for international cooperation.

Highlights

Global issues such as international development cooperation are on the foreign policy agenda of most developed states
This research is important for the following reasons, which we will go on to address in more detail: (1) public opinion is important for development aid because it creates a context in which Governments can operate; (2) previous research into public opinion on aid is dominated by comparative studies between countries and ignores internal variations within each country and the attitudes of people from non-urban areas; (3) this paper addresses this gap by observing attitudes about global problems and aid to development from a rural perspective
The third block assessed their knowledge of international cooperation, while the fourth evaluated their support for cooperation

Summary

Introduction

Global issues such as international development cooperation are on the foreign policy agenda of most developed states Their importance on these agendas varies in line with the interests and ideologies of the government in power and is affected by public opinion. Cooperation policies and the proportion of government expenditure devoted to them are influenced to some degree by social perceptions, and the opinions and attitudes of the population. With this in mind, in this paper our aim is to identify and analyze social perceptions, opinions and attitudes on international development cooperation and other global issues. Research into public opinion in rural areas can help improve social inclusion and education for development and global citizenship.

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