The paper examines how flows of foreign aid have changed to democratizing Sub-Saharan African countries during and after their transitions. There is a wide range of arguments on why donors should increase foreign aid to new democracies, ranging from the need to assist the consolidation of the new polity to aid effectiveness considerations. With a large number of cases of democratization happening between 1990 and 2009, and many different ‘hybrid’ regimes emerging, Sub-Saharan Africa is an ideal region to test how donors have reacted. The main conclusion is that donors in general have tended not to ‘reward’ democratizing countries in the region with larger aid flows during or after their transitions, although there are some exceptions. Donors however have in most cases punished Sub-Saharan African countries were democratic reversals occurred. Reactions of two donors which place a large emphasis on spreading democratic values, the United States and the European Commission are examined individually as well. Flows of US aid have rather consistently increased to democratizing countries in the region, but the EC only performs slightly better than the average donor.
