The Boom and Bust of Donor Development Regimes

Abstract

Across the Global North, support for international development is weakening. This raises an important question: Under what conditions does international solidarity become politically sustainable? This article addresses that question through a historical case study of the Netherlands, one of the strongest donor countries of the post‐war era and a critical case for studying the durability of support for international development. The article introduces the concept of the donor development regime (DDR): a configuration of mutually reinforcing narratives, institutions, actors, and practices that generates sustained public and political commitment to development. The analysis shows that the Dutch DDR emerged through the interaction of favorable historical, cultural, and political conditions with policy entrepreneurs, advocacy coalitions, and a developmentalist epistemic community. Commitment was institutionalized through three lock‐in mechanisms: cooptation, fixation, and strategic communication. The regime remained resilient for decades before unraveling as these enabling conditions weakened. As a critical case, the Dutch experience offers broader insights into the erosion of donor development regimes across the Global North. The article concludes that the key challenge is not restoring 20th‐century aid regimes but rebuilding the structural conditions that enable international solidarity in the 21st century.