The FINANCIAL — In the past few weeks, we’ve discussed at great lengths just how extensive the Europhiliais in Georgia, and how much they desire NATO integration. The phenomenonis so extensive that Georgianshave more general trust in European institutions than any of their peers, and more than in their own institutions; 71% of Georgians trust the EU and only 62% trust the Georgian parliament. This week though, we’ll finally see some data that show that Georgians have more confidence in their own institutions for at least some things.
Georgian Opinion Research Business International and TNS opinion just finished the most recent wave of the EU Neighborhood barometer, which polls all the countries in the EU’s immediate area. GORBI was specifically responsible for asking people in Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, and the three Caucasian countries about their attitudes toward the EU, their own countries’ situations, and their general predictions for the future. For this project, the European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument, these countries are collectively known as the ENPI East.
While European institutions may seem more trustworthy to Georgians in general, respondents trust their own government more when asked specifically about its ability to effectively aid its developing economy. 75% of respondents said that their own government is capable of helping economic development, while the EU only had economic trust from 54% of Georgians. Only about 10% of Georgians thought that any other international groups could do much good, such as the G8 or G20, or the IMF or World Bank.
As usual, Georgians are more trusting than the rest of the ENPI East; only 53% of the Eastern countries had faith in their own governments’ abilities to spur their economies, and only 37% said so of the EU. Where Georgians’ disproportionate faith is most pronounced, however, is across the Atlantic. Almost four times as many Georgians believe in the United States’ ability to aid in economic development than the remaining ENPI East.
This may have something to do with the prevalence of American aid organizations, primarily USAID and its marketing policy of putting stickers on everything in sight. According to a recent US Congressional budget report, USAID spent some 289 million USD in the ENPI East in 2012. While each of the ENPI East countries took in at least some of this money, Georgia received $19 per person, more than three and a half times the per capita average of the remaining five countries.
Next week we’ll test this idea that US foreign aid results in faith in American economic development; we’ll take a look at all the ENPI countries surveyed, their belief that the US can help their economies, and just how much money is flowing in.
USAID dollars per person was calculated using official USAID reports and 2012 Georgian census data. All statistics in this article have margins of error around 3% with 95% confidence. Visit our website at gorbi.com for more articles.
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