This research investigates the importance of public opinion in the context of international governance. The goal of the project is two-folded: 1) to establish how the attitudes of citizens in "old" and "new" EU states differ towards international development and assistance and what is the interraction between attitudes towards democratic development and those towards democratic systems of governance; 2) to conduct a case study on Romania, in order to determine wether citizens and elites converge on the attitudes towards international development.