Terms and Conditions:

Governments, international agencies, and private foundations invest heavily in giving citizens of developing countries a Western education, betting that democratic commitments travel home with them. Yet this bet has never been rigorously tested — and the political records of Western-educated returnees vary strikingly, from reformist democrats to reactionary autocrats, with many showing no discernible political effect at all. The stakes have rarely been higher: democracy is backsliding worldwide, authoritarian rule has grown technologically sophisticated, populism is resurgent, and East–West tensions are climbing to alarming levels.

This book asks what explains that variation. Moving beyond both Western-centric optimism and its pessimistic mirror image, it identifies the conditions — spanning trainees, programmes, destinations, and home countries — under which Western education advances democracy and those under which it proves counterproductive. It draws on three original studies conducted over five years: a longitudinal survey of Western trainees, a comparative historical analysis of their political impact, and a survey experiment probing the biases of Western stakeholders themselves.