Bachelor essay in political science by Marie Åberg, autumn 2011. “Harm or benefit? A critical view of the theoretical grounds of the international development aid”. Supervisor: Professor Mats Lindberg. The first of the dual purpose of this essay is to present international aid policy ideas and the theoretical grounds of international development aid. Then the essay presents the international critical view of development aid in order to analyse if the theoretical grounds of international development aid are valid.The main question of this essay is therefore: How has development aid policy ideas emerged internationally and what is the theoretical foundation of international development aid and is it a valid theoretical basis as seen in the light of international critical discussion?This study is divided in two parts, a descriptive presentation and a critical assessment. The method used is qualitative theoretical analysis and I have based my studies on literature from the two critics chosen to represent the international critical view. Regarding the presentation of international development aid policy ideas and theoretical grounds I have chosen well known standard literature on the subject. The conclusions I have made is that international development aid was born with the Marshallplan USA presented after world war two. Since then the ideas of development aid has been shaped by dominant political actors in western countries. Today development aid is built up on the strategy of “governance”. The presumptions behind “governance” is that democracy and human rights will lead development countries to economic development. But in the light of international critical discourse this theory is in need of reconsideration. The criticism points to some important factors. For example, history shows no proof of democracy being the foremost factor for economic development and the “governance”-strategy is a western concept to dominate the third world. According to the critics aid creates dependents, not development. In the light of the critical discourse development aid theory appears inadequate.   Key words: Development aid, development theory, development practice, governance, political conditionality.