The effectiveness of aid has been a subject of much investigation. It has been charged that bilateral aid is especially culpable for being structured to reap gains for the benefactor and not for humanitarian purposes. Contrary to this belief, research indicates that it is bilateral aid, rather than multilateral aid, that has had a more significant positive effect on development in the South. The following essay will attempt to demonstrate that the presence or absence of political and civil rights in the recipient country has one of the greatest effects on the efficiency with which aid promotes development. It will also link this finding to the greater effectiveness of bilateral aid, and concludes that while aid may aggregately benefit the North more than the South at this point in time, progress relating to the political rights variable could extensively alter this balance of aid value.