Considerable material and human resources are devoted to building democratic institutions around the world. Why, then, do assistance programs fail to meet their proclaimed goals? And why aren't these programmes changed or abandoned when they fail? Using US assistance to women's NGOs in postcommunist Ukraine as a case study, Kateryna Pishchikova shows why democracy promotion programmes have a limited or even negative impact on democracy in recipient countries. Combining analysis of policy documents with in-depth interviews and observations, she explains the persistence of aid despite the disillusionment of its beneficiaries.