Official development assistance: a ’moral’ question for American, British, French and German people?
Around a third of French (26%), German (31%), British (30%) and American (30%) people think that an increase in each of their country’s official development assistance is a ’moral’ question.
Around another third in four countries, however, think the opposite.
This said, evidently the argument of taking ’moral’ action, and the principle of equal opportunities for all, seem to represent a significant influence on views on international solidarity. In France however, the ideal of a ’moral’ reason to take action has the least influence compared to the other three countries, but in the UK, there is the strongest disagreement with the idea that aid is a ’moral’ action for the British government to take.
In general, we can see that an argument based on or evoking values is often likely to create support for international solidarity. However, this support is watered down when it comes to practical measures to implement this support.
This data comes from our survey conducted by the YouGov Institute and piloted by the research team at University College London and the University of Birmingham as part of the project Aid Attitudes Tracker which measures the evolution of opinions and behaviors on issues of international solidarity in four countries.
