This study examines the relationship between Official Development Assistance (ODA) and

democratization in aid-recipient countries during the period 2002–2020. Drawing on

institutional theory, the study contributes to the ongoing debate on whether ODA promotes,

stagnates, or undermines democratization in recipient countries. The analysis distinguishes

between total development aid, democracy-oriented aid, and the share of democracy aid

relative to total aid. Using data from the OECD Creditor Reporting System (CRS), DAC2A,

V-Dem’s Electoral Democracy Index, and World Bank Open Data, I apply a fixed-effects

regression model with three different time lags: short-

, medium-

, and long term. I find no

statistically significant relationship between total aid and democratization across all three

models. In contrast, democracy-oriented aid displays a weak but statistically significant

positive association in the short and medium term, while the share of democracy aid is

positively associated with democratization only in the short term. The results further indicate

that these effects decline over longer time periods and lose statistical significance in the long

term. However, the findings should be interpreted as correlations rather than causal

relationships. The study suggests that the structure and direction of aid may be more

important than the aggregated total volume for democratization. At the same time, the

observed effects are small, indicating that development aid alone is unlikely to generate a

larger democratic change. Therefore, the paper positions itself within the part of the research

that emphasizes the importance of separating different types of aid when analyzing

democratic effects.