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Learning how business is done: Management styles and labour market inclusion

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Existing efforts to promote upward mobility in low-income countries focus on broadening access to education. However, evidence from Ethiopia shows that professional socialisation (learning professional norms) may be a key constraint to this mobility, even among highly educated people.

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Marcel Fafchamps

Meet Our Researchers: Dr. Marcel Fafchamps

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Nensi Hayotsyan
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The "Meet Our Researchers" series showcases the incredible scholars at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). Through engaging interviews conducted by our undergraduate research assistants, we explore the journeys, passions, and insights of CDDRL’s faculty and researchers.

Marcel Fafchamps is a Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and a faculty member at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. Previously, he was the Satre Family Senior Fellow at FSI. He is also a Professor (by courtesy) in the Department of Economics, and his research focuses on economic development, market institutions, social networks, and behavioral economics, with a regional emphasis on Africa and South Asia. Before joining Stanford, Dr. Fafchamps served as a professor at Oxford University and spent several years in Ethiopia working with the International Labour Organization.

What inspired you to pursue research in your current field, and how did your journey lead you to CDDRL? 


My choice of research field was actually somewhat serendipitous. I wasn’t initially interested in development; I was drawn to human behavior, but not development specifically. After finishing my undergraduate studies, I went to Ethiopia for what was meant to be just one year and ended up staying nearly five. Being there completely changed my direction. As a young graduate, I suddenly had a lot of freedom. I carried out individual research, traveled on missions to several African countries, observed institutions, asked questions, and produced studies. That experience made me much more interested in international issues.

I spent the first ten years of my career at Stanford before moving to Oxford University, which had a strong research community in this field. Eventually, I decided to return, and by the time I came back in 2013, Stanford had developed a vibrant and dynamic community in this area.

What is the most exciting or impactful finding from your research, and why do you think it matters for democracy, development, or the rule of law? 


I haven’t pursued research with the aim of having a specific policy impact. I’ve always been more interested in understanding behavior — why people act the way they do — rather than focusing on whether a particular intervention changes outcomes. Without understanding the underlying mechanism, it’s hard to know whether a result will carry over to another context. 

My citations, about 33,500, are spread across a wide range of papers rather than concentrated in one or two major hits. If I had to choose the work I’m proudest of, it would be the book I wrote on market institutions in the early 2000s. Many of my papers have also been influential.
 

 If I had to choose the work I’m proudest of, it would be the book I wrote on market institutions in the early 2000s.
Marcel Fafchamps


What have been some of the most challenging aspects of conducting research in this field, and how did you overcome these challenges? 


Early on, one of the major challenges was finding a place with the right kind of support: interested colleagues, staff who could assist with fieldwork, and, especially, a community of graduate students interested in similar questions. That kind of environment takes time to build. Oxford had a very strong community with a lot of support, funding, and students working in this area. When I later returned to Stanford, we hired younger development economists and were able to build a similarly vibrant student community working on different aspects of behavior and development.

How do you see your research influencing policy or contributing to real-world change? 


Mostly through understanding behavior and what lies behind different types of decisions. That’s what matters. In addition, the direct policy impact has largely come through my students. Many have gone into academia, but many others have joined organizations like the World Bank, the IMF, or private companies. One student, for example, helped set up a commodity exchange in Ethiopia, which certainly had policy impact. So my influence on policy has been felt primarily through the work that my students go on to do.
 

My influence on policy has been felt primarily through the work that my students go on to do.
Marcel Fafchamps


How have things changed in your field since you first began your research, and how has this influenced the way you approach your work? 


Research methodologies have evolved significantly over time. In the early days, researchers did not even use surveys. Later, surveys became more rigorous, and the field moved toward panel data to follow households over longer periods. With the introduction of GPS, it became possible to work with spatial data in new and more precise ways. The emergence of randomized controlled trials marked another major shift and shaped development economics for many years, although that influence is now starting to decline. Conceptually, the growing importance of behavioral economics has also been a major change and has become increasingly central to how we study issues in economic development.

What gaps do you feel need to be addressed in your research field, and what do you anticipate you will study more in the future? 


There are always gaps. It never is a finished business. The challenges also change over time. Recently, in a very short period, many things built over our lifetimes have been undone. The question is whether to try to rebuild them or conclude that they did not work and try something else. I do not think many of the solutions being proposed now will last; they are not effective. The erosion of the rule of law is especially disturbing. Even democracies struggle with it, but in this country, it has essentially gone out the window. The neglect of international law is also profoundly shocking.

Could you elaborate on the broader shifts you’ve observed in recent years, especially the weakening of institutions and systems that once supported development and international cooperation? 


Closing down USAID is a massive change. Development institutions could certainly be improved, but shutting them down entirely is something very different. These shifts have also affected research funding. Funding has dwindled, and academic positions in development have declined. The job market in development economics overall seems to be shrinking. There is also less interest in people who study democracy, because their work would necessarily be critical of what is happening. It has been a significant backward step.

In times of uncertainty, what gives you hope for the future of your field? 


My students! Their enthusiasm has not disappeared, and the enthusiasm among researchers remains strong as well. Our international contacts remain solid, and parts of the world, especially in Europe, such as Germany and Switzerland, have not given up on these ideals. For example, Esther Duflo recently moved from MIT to Zurich, and we may see more moves like that.

Lastly, what book would you recommend for students interested in a research career in your field? 


Development economics now covers everything; it’s essentially all economics for 80 percent of the world, so there isn’t one book that summarizes it. If someone wants to start a research career focused on market institutions, I would recommend the book I wrote on that topic: Market Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Theory and Evidence (MIT Press, 2003). But if I had to pick a book I personally enjoyed, it would be the historian Fernand Braudel's three-volume Civilization and Capitalism, which looks at market institutions across the world from 1400 to 1800. It was eye-opening and a lot more interesting than traditional, battle-focused history.
 


As he approaches retirement at the end of 2025, Dr. Fafchamps offers insights drawn from decades of research on behavior and institutions. His legacy endures through his students and the body of research that continues to shape scholarship worldwide.

On November 14, 2025, CDDRL and the King Center on Global Development hosted "Unfinished Business: A Tribute to Marcel Fafchamps" — a full-day academic symposium celebrating the career and contributions of economist Marcel Fafchamps on the occasion of his retirement. Featuring a keynote by Marcel himself, this tribute brought together colleagues, collaborators, and students to engage with the themes and ideas that have shaped his influential work in development economics, labor markets, and social networks.

Marcel's keynote on "Behavioral Markets" can be viewed below:

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The Future is Urban

By 2050, seven out of every 10 people worldwide will live in cities. Stanford researchers are seeking ways to make them stable and sustainable.
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Deivy Houeix interviews a local businesswoman in Abidjan
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A long-term focus on growing cities in Africa

Multi-year datasets from the King Center’s African Urbanization and Development Research Initiative continue to inform research and policy insights in Ethiopia and Côte d’Ivoire.
A long-term focus on growing cities in Africa
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Meet Our Researchers: Dr. Marcel Fafchamps
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A conversation with Marcel Fafchamps as he reflects on the insights, challenges, and evolving institutions that have shaped his decades in development research.

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DP20306 Competition and Management Upgrading: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia

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We experimentally test two seminal hypotheses on the impact of competition on firms' management upgrading. In a first experiment, we protect firms from labor market competition by reducing the risk that a freshly trained manager would be poached by a rival firm. We find that this protection does not increase firms' investment in management training. In a second suite of experiments, we boost perceived product market competition by informing firms either that rival firms have received management training or that foreign firms are gaining easier access to the domestic market. Again, we find no evidence that this increases firms' average willingness to invest in management training. To explain why firms do not feel threatened by competition, we present evidence suggesting that, in contrast to commonly held assumptions, firm managers in our setting hold a mental model of competition that posits positive — instead of negative — spillovers, arising primarily from differentiation.

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CEPR Press, Paris & London
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Pascaline Dupas
Marcel Fafchamps
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CEPR Discussion Paper No. 20306

A long-term focus on growing cities in Africa

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When Stanford University researchers, including Professors Pascaline Dupas and Marcel Fafchamps, set out to test a new way of assessing relative poverty, applying a peer-ranking methodology they devised to data from a large metropolis in Côte d’Ivoire and rural Indonesia, their method worked—in some ways better than other poverty measures.

Read the full article from the Stanford King Center on Global Development here.

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Deivy Houeix interviews a local businesswoman in Abidjan
Deivy Houeix interviews a local businesswoman in Abidjan.
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Multi-year datasets from the King Center’s African Urbanization and Development Research Initiative continue to inform research and policy insights in Ethiopia and Côte d’Ivoire.

Local Democracy in Action: Stories from the Field

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Nora Sulots
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The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law’s (CDDRL) Leadership Network for Change (LNC) is an expansive group that encompasses over 2,000 up-and-coming leaders and change-makers from all corners of the globe. This diverse and widespread network is comprised of alumni of three practitioner programs based at CDDRL: the Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program, Leadership Academy for Development, and the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program.

Last summer LNC, in partnership with the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), launched an RFP for an innovative grant program — the Local Democracy in Action Grants Initiative. These collaboration grants were designed to bring together LNC leaders and CIPE partners to work across industry, sectors, and borders to introduce local democratic approaches, analysis, research, or dialogue to improve the way in which local communities solve today’s greatest democratic challenges. 

We were pleased to award grants to six teams of alumni whose projects aimed to support democratic reform efforts, civic discourse, and the incorporation of new technology to make a wider impact on the local political and economic environment:

  • Ethiopia: Insuring Public Accountability Through Tailored E-Government
  • Georgia: Democracy Podcast Series
  • Kazakhstan: Data Protection Regulation Upgrades
  • Lebanon: Enhancing Decision Making & Transparency in the Public Procurement Process
  • Nepal: Strengthening Technology-Driven Democracy Through Robust & Digitally Secured Civic Space
  • Ukraine: Enhancing the Quality of Decisions & Creating Local Coalitions Around Key Reforms

On August 17, 2022, CIPE convened the grantees to present the culmination and impact of their work. Below you can view a recording of the event and read about each of the six projects.

 

LOCAL DEMOCRACY IN ACTION PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS

Ensuring Public Accountability Through Tailored E-Government (Ethiopia)
Wondwossen Mitiku (LAD), Begashaw Tizazu (LAD), Getachew Teklemariam

LNC and CIPE alumni Wondwossen Mitiku, Begashaw Tizazu, and Getachew Teklemariam worked to strengthen the use of digital technology for public participation and accountability in Ethiopia. Through research and dialogue with e-government representatives in Estonia, South Korea, and Tunisia, the team developed local advocacy strategies that promoted greater public participation and accountability of e-government services in Ethiopia. The team developed a policy paper capturing their recommendations and organize a workshop promoting their findings.

Democracy Podcast Series (Georgia)
Nino Evgenidze (DHSF), Natia Zambakhidze (LAD)

In Georgia, the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC) and Radio Liberty collaborated to organize a series of podcasts and lectures to strengthen public understanding of important issues facing Georgian society. EPRC and Radio Liberty hosted leading experts to foster discussion on a diverse set of issues facing Georgia and the wider region. Topics included democratic and economic development, economic security, democracy and technology, and Euro-Atlantic integration.

Data Protection Regulation Upgrades (Kazakhstan)
Ruslan Dairbekov (DHSF), Nino Evgenidze (DHSF)

LNC alumni Nino Evangenidze and Ruslan Daiyrbekov led a virtual study tour of Georgia’s development and implementation of the nation’s data protection regulatory regime. Evangenidze and Daiyrbekov led a group of policymakers and think tank leaders to identify data protection best practices and lessons learned from Georgia’s experience. Following the study tour, formal recommendations were developed to inform a draft data protection law in Kazakhstan.

Enhancing Decision Making and Transparency in the Public Procurement Process (Lebanon)
Rabih el Chaer (DHSF), Mohamad Najem (DHSF)

The Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS) collaborated with LNC alumni Mohamad Najem and Rabih El Chaer to produce policy recommendations on enhancing the e-procurement system in Lebanon. To inform their work, the team met with Ukraine’s e-procurement system administrators to learn about the country’s system and identify lessons in its development and implementation. Based on their findings, they produced a policy paper outlining their recommendations and shared it widely with policymakers, journalists, and civil society representatives in Lebanon.

Strengthening Technology-Driven Democracy Through Robust and Digitally Secured Civic Space (Nepal)
Narayan Adhikari (CIPE), Bikin Ghimire (CIPE)

The Accountability Lab Nepal (ALN) and Digital Rights Nepal (DRN) collaborated to develop a toolkit for civil society organizations to equip them with the ability to manage digital security threats and vulnerabilities while defending democracy. ALN and DRN conducted desk research, disseminated a survey, and organized workshops with key stakeholders to identify best practices and develop tips and advice to navigate the internet safely. Through their efforts, ALN and DRN helped to build a more robust and digital secure civic space in Nepal.

Enhancing the Quality of Decisions and Creating Local Coalitions Around Key Reforms (Ukraine)
Iryna Nemyrovych (LAD), Matvii Khrenov (LAD), Pavlo Kovtonyuk

The Ukrainian Healthcare Center (UHC) and LNC alumni Iryna Nemyrovych, Matvii Khrenoc, and Pavlo Kovtonyuk worked to create local coalitions in several Ukrainian municipalities to foster dialogue and promote strategies to improve the country’s healthcare systems.  Through this advocacy work, the team enhanced local democratic engagement and strengthened the transparency and quality of medical services.
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CDDRL's Leadership Network for Change and the Center for International Private Enterprise awarded collaboration grants to six teams of alumni to foster cooperation and strengthen democratic development on a regional and global scale.

Labor conflict within foreign, domestic, and Chinese-owned manufacturing firms in Ethiopia

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Research has documented labor conflict within foreign-owned, and especially Chinese-owned, manufacturing firms in sub-Saharan economies. Yet, systematic comparisons of foreign versus domestic firms are rare, and it remains unclear whether labor conflict is a phenomenon that affects emerging industries or is specific to foreign firms. Drawing on a large firm survey in Ethiopia, we show that foreign firms hire similarly educated and experienced workers. They also offer comparable salaries, benefits, and hours than domestic firms, after controlling for firm size and age. Nevertheless, they experience more complaints, strikes, and protests, with Chinese-owned firms reporting particularly high rates of labor conflict. To scrutinize these findings, we conduct case studies of labor management in six domestic and eight foreign-owned firms around Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We observe antagonistic labor relations in five foreign-owned firms, four of which are Chinese-owned. In these firms, managers perceive employees as using labor laws to take advantage of them, whereas employees see labor laws as a basis for harmonious labor relations. In the remaining firms, managers frame their firm policies as consistent with employee perceptions of labor laws. We conjecture that the visibility of formal labor institutions leads employees to interpret disagreements as intentional disrespect, rather than ignorance. Our findings suggest that misaligned perceptions about the role of local labor institutions may be an important driver of conflict in foreign-owned firms.

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A large firm survey shows that labor conflicts in Ethiopia are more frequent in foreign-owned firms, especially those that are Chinese-owned. Foreign firms hire similarly educated and experienced workers, while offering similar salaries and benefits. We draw on case studies to explore reasons why foreign, and especially Chinese-owned firms, face exceptional levels of labor conflict. Misaligned perceptions about the role of local labor laws may be an important driver of conflict.

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World Development
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Marcel Fafchamps
Number
November 2022, 106037

Marcel Fafchamps

Encina Hall
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Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Professor, by courtesy, of Economics
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Marcel Fafchamps is a Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and a member of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. Previously, he was the Satre Family Senior Fellow at FSI. Fafchamps is a professor (by courtesy) for the Department of Economics at Stanford University. His research interests include economic development, market institutions, social networks, and behavioral economics — with a special focus on Africa and South Asia.

Prior to joining FSI, from 1999-2013, Fafchamps served as professor of development economics in the Department of Economics at Oxford University. He also served as deputy director and then co-director of the Center for the Study of African Economies. From 1989 to 1996, Fafchamps was an assistant professor with the Food Research Institute at Stanford University. Following the closure of the Institute, he taught for two years at the Department of Economics. For the 1998-1999 academic year, Fafchamps was on sabbatical leave at the research department of the World Bank. Before pursuing his PhD in 1986, Fafchamps was based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for 5 years during his employment with the International Labour Organization, a United Nations agency that oversees employment, income distribution, and vocational training in Africa.

He has authored two books: Market Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Theory and Evidence (MIT Press, 2004) and Rural Poverty, Risk, and Development (Elgar Press, 2003), and has published numerous articles in academic journals.

Fafchamps served as the editor-in-chief of Economic Development and Cultural Change until 2020. Previously, he had served as chief editor of the Journal of African Economies from 2000 to 2013, and as associate editor of the Economic Journal, the Journal of Development Economics, Economic Development and Cultural Change, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, and the Revue d'Economie du Développement.

He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, an affiliated professor with J-PAL, a senior fellow with the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development, a research fellow with IZA, Germany, and with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, UK, and an affiliate with the University of California’s Center for Effective Global Action.

Fafchamps has degrees in Law and in Economics from the Université Catholique de Louvain. He holds a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. 

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The New Middle East and the Implications for Israeli-Palestinian Peace

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For the past several years, and especially since the beginning of the "Arab Spring" in December 2010, Arab regimes have experienced sweeping processes of political decay, disintegration, reform, and revolution. While these are far from finished and clear in their impacts, they have already begun to transform the political parameters affecting peace and stability in the Middle East. The prevailing assumption is that destabilization of the neighborhood has made Israel even more reluctant to take any new initiatives or assume any new risks for a peace agreement with the Palestinians. But the changing regional parameters also generate new opportunities and especially new urgency for obtaining a two-state solution while it is still possible.

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Larry Diamond

CDDRL
Stanford University
Encina Hall, C147
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution
Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science and Sociology
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Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He is also professor by courtesy of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford, where he lectures and teaches courses on democracy (including an online course on EdX). At the Hoover Institution, he co-leads the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region and participates in the Project on the U.S., China, and the World. At FSI, he is among the core faculty of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, which he directed for six and a half years. He leads FSI’s Israel Studies Program and is a member of the Program on Arab Reform and Development. He also co-leads the Global Digital Policy Incubator, based at FSI’s Cyber Policy Center. He served for 32 years as founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy.

Diamond’s research focuses on global trends affecting freedom and democracy and on U.S. and international policies to defend and advance democracy. His book, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, analyzes the challenges confronting liberal democracy in the United States and around the world at this potential “hinge in history,” and offers an agenda for strengthening and defending democracy at home and abroad.  A paperback edition with a new preface was released by Penguin in April 2020. His other books include: In Search of Democracy (2016), The Spirit of Democracy (2008), Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation (1999), Promoting Democracy in the 1990s (1995), and Class, Ethnicity, and Democracy in Nigeria (1989). He has edited or coedited more than fifty books, including China’s Influence and American Interests (2019, with Orville Schell), Silicon Triangle: The United States, China, Taiwan the Global Semiconductor Security (2023, with James O. Ellis Jr. and Orville Schell), and The Troubling State of India’s Democracy (2024, with Sumit Ganguly and Dinsha Mistree).

During 2002–03, Diamond served as a consultant to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and was a contributing author of its report, Foreign Aid in the National Interest. He has advised and lectured to universities and think tanks around the world, and to the World Bank, the United Nations, the State Department, and other organizations dealing with governance and development. During the first three months of 2004, Diamond served as a senior adviser on governance to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. His 2005 book, Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq, was one of the first books to critically analyze America's postwar engagement in Iraq.

Among Diamond’s other edited books are Democracy in Decline?; Democratization and Authoritarianism in the Arab World; Will China Democratize?; and Liberation Technology: Social Media and the Struggle for Democracy, all edited with Marc F. Plattner; and Politics and Culture in Contemporary Iran, with Abbas Milani. With Juan J. Linz and Seymour Martin Lipset, he edited the series, Democracy in Developing Countries, which helped to shape a new generation of comparative study of democratic development.

Download full-resolution headshot; photo credit: Rod Searcey.

Former Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Faculty Chair, Jan Koum Israel Studies Program
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Should American Democracy Assistance become more European? Lessons from EU and US Democracy Assistance in Ethiopia

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The U.S. and the E.U. are often seen as fundamentally different democracy promoters. It has been argued that the U.S. has a more political approach, which is confrontational vis-à-vis host governments and promotes democracy bottom-up via civil society. The E.U., on the other hand, is perceived as more developmental, focusing on non-confrontational projects that are mostly top-down or focused on civil society organizations not critical of the government. The U.S.’s political approach has been criticized for being too donor-led, unilateral, and hardly respecting country ownership. But should American democracy assistance become more European?

Based on research on E.U. and U.S. democracy assistance programs in Ethiopia, CDDRL Postdoctoral Fellow Karen Del Biondo explains the causes and consequences of a political and developmental approach to democracy assistance. She argues that the E.U. has indeed taken a more developmental approach, which can be explained by the European Commission’s commitment to the Paris Declaration principles on aid effectiveness, including ownership, alignment and, harmonization. This was possible because of the relatively autonomous position of the Commission vis-à-vis the Member States and the European Parliament. In contrast, USAID does not enjoy this bureaucratic autonomy, and has therefore paid lip service to aid effectiveness. Del Biondo discusses the advantages and disadvantages of a political and developmental approach in a semi-authoritarian regime such as Ethiopia. She finds that, although the impact of E.U. democracy assistance in Ethiopia can be questioned, the E.U.’s developmental approach has made the government of Ethiopia more open to E.U. democracy assistance, while the U.S.’s political approach led to a backlash.

Speaker Bio:

Karen Del Biondo is a 2012-2013 postdoctoral fellow at the CDDRL. Her research is funded with a Fulbright-Schuman award and a postdoctoral grant from the Belgian-American Educational Foundation (BAEF). She holds an MA in Political Science (International Relations) from Ghent University and an MA in European Studies from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. In 2007-2008 she obtained a Bernheim fellowship for an internship in European affairs at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Permanent Representation to the EU. 

Karen Del Biondo obtained her PhD at the Centre for EU Studies, Ghent University in September 2012 with a dissertation entitled ‘Norms, self-interest and effectiveness: Explaining double standards in EU reactions to violations of democratic principles in sub-Saharan Africa’. Her PhD research was funded by the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO). Apart from her PhD research, she has been involved in the research project ‘The Substance of EU Democracy Promotion’ (Ghent University/University of Mannheim/Centre of European Policy Studies) and has published on the securitisation of EU development policies. In January 2011 she conducted field research in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Her postdoctoral research will focus on the comparison between EU and US democracy assistance in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Karen Del Biondo

Encina Hall
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Fulbright and BAEF postdoctoral fellow 2012-2013
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Karen Del Biondo is a 2012-2013 postdoctoral scholar at CDDRL. Her research is funded with a Fulbright-Schuman award and a postdoctoral grant from the Belgian-American Educational Foundation (BAEF). She holds an MA in Political Science (International Relations) from Ghent University and an MA in European Studies from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. In 2007-2008 she obtained a Bernheim fellowship for an internship in European affairs at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Permanent Representation to the EU. 

Karen Del Biondo obtained her PhD at the Centre for EU Studies, Ghent University in September 2012 with a dissertation entitled ‘Norms, self-interest and effectiveness: Explaining double standards in EU reactions to violations of democratic principles in sub-Saharan Africa’. Her PhD research was funded by the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO). Apart from her PhD research, she has been involved in the research project ‘The Substance of EU Democracy Promotion’ (Ghent University/University of Mannheim/Centre of European Policy Studies) and has published on the securitisation of EU development policies. In January 2011 she conducted field research in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Her postdoctoral research will focus on the comparison between EU and US democracy assistance in sub-Saharan Africa.

Karen Del Biondo’s recent publications include: ‘Security and Development in EU External Relations: Converging, but in which direction?’ (with Stefan Oltsch and Jan Orbie), in S. Biscop & R. Whitman (eds.) Handbook of European Union Security, Routledge (2012); ‘Democracy Promotion Meets Development Cooperation: The EU as a Promoter of Democratic Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa’, European Foreign Affairs Review, Vol. 16, N°5, 2011, 659-672; and ‘EU Aid Conditionality in ACP Countries. Explaining Inconsistency in EU Sanctions Practice’, Journal of Contemporary European Research, Vol. 7, N°3, 2011, 380-395.

Karen Del Biondo Postdoctoral fellow 2012-13 Speaker CDDRL
Seminars

Should American Democracy Assistance become more European? Lessons from EU and US Democracy Assistance in Ethiopia

-

Abstract:

The U.S. and the E.U. are often seen as fundamentally different democracy promoters. It has been argued that the U.S. has a more political approach, which is confrontational vis-à-vis host governments and promotes democracy bottom-up via civil society. The E.U., on the other hand, is perceived as more developmental, focusing on non-confrontational projects that are mostly top-down or focused on civil society organizations not critical of the government. The U.S.’s political approach has been criticized for being too donor-led, unilateral, and hardly respecting country ownership. But should American democracy assistance become more European?

Based on research on E.U. and U.S. democracy assistance programs in Ethiopia, CDDRL Postdoctoral Fellow Karen Del Biondo explains the causes and consequences of a political and developmental approach to democracy assistance. She argues that the E.U. has indeed taken a more developmental approach, which can be explained by the European Commission’s commitment to the Paris Declaration principles on aid effectiveness, including ownership, alignment and, harmonization. This was possible because of the relatively autonomous position of the Commission vis-à-vis the Member States and the European Parliament. In contrast, USAID does not enjoy this bureaucratic autonomy, and has therefore paid lip service to aid effectiveness. Del Biondo discusses the advantages and disadvantages of a political and developmental approach in a semi-authoritarian regime such as Ethiopia. She finds that, although the impact of E.U. democracy assistance in Ethiopia can be questioned, the E.U.’s developmental approach has made the government of Ethiopia more open to E.U. democracy assistance, while the U.S.’s political approach led to a backlash.

Karen Del Biondo

Encina Hall
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Fulbright and BAEF postdoctoral fellow 2012-2013
del_biondo.jpg

Karen Del Biondo is a 2012-2013 postdoctoral scholar at CDDRL. Her research is funded with a Fulbright-Schuman award and a postdoctoral grant from the Belgian-American Educational Foundation (BAEF). She holds an MA in Political Science (International Relations) from Ghent University and an MA in European Studies from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. In 2007-2008 she obtained a Bernheim fellowship for an internship in European affairs at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Permanent Representation to the EU. 

Karen Del Biondo obtained her PhD at the Centre for EU Studies, Ghent University in September 2012 with a dissertation entitled ‘Norms, self-interest and effectiveness: Explaining double standards in EU reactions to violations of democratic principles in sub-Saharan Africa’. Her PhD research was funded by the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO). Apart from her PhD research, she has been involved in the research project ‘The Substance of EU Democracy Promotion’ (Ghent University/University of Mannheim/Centre of European Policy Studies) and has published on the securitisation of EU development policies. In January 2011 she conducted field research in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Her postdoctoral research will focus on the comparison between EU and US democracy assistance in sub-Saharan Africa.

Karen Del Biondo’s recent publications include: ‘Security and Development in EU External Relations: Converging, but in which direction?’ (with Stefan Oltsch and Jan Orbie), in S. Biscop & R. Whitman (eds.) Handbook of European Union Security, Routledge (2012); ‘Democracy Promotion Meets Development Cooperation: The EU as a Promoter of Democratic Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa’, European Foreign Affairs Review, Vol. 16, N°5, 2011, 659-672; and ‘EU Aid Conditionality in ACP Countries. Explaining Inconsistency in EU Sanctions Practice’, Journal of Contemporary European Research, Vol. 7, N°3, 2011, 380-395.

Karen Del Biondo Post Doctoral Scholar Speaker
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