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http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp0100000282s| Title: | When Reality Contradicts Rhetoric : World Bank Lending Practices in Developing Countries in Historical, Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives |
| Contributors: | Gros, Jean-Germain Prokopovych, Olga |
| Keywords: | World Bank Developing Countries Economic assistance Loans, Foreign |
| Issue Date: | 2005 |
| Publisher: | CODESRIA (Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa) |
| Place of Publication: | Dakar, Senegal |
| Series/Report no.: | CODESRIA Monograph Series |
| Description: | This four-part study critically examines World Bank lending policy behaviour in historical, theoretical and empirical perspectives. Its main arguments, each substantiated separately, are three-fold. Firstly, Bank lending policies have been heavily influenced by western development discourses (e.g., modernization theory), which have been mostly neo-liberal but, at times, challenged by counterworldviews stemming from the harmful impacts of neo-liberalism as policy (e.g., Structural Adjustment Programs) in dependent countries. As a result, although neo-liberalism, is at the core of Bank ideology, it does not always, and single-handedly, determine Bank policy. Where the World Bank is concerned, ideology is expressed in an organizational context and the larger environment of North-South relations, which require the balancing of all three. Thus the study develops a theoretical model of World Bank policy behaviour in Part II based on open systems theory, bureaucratic politics theory (as developed by Allison and Hallerin) and, to a lesser extent, rational choice theory. Much of the gap, between Bank rhetoric and policy reality, is explained theoretically in this section. In Part III the study presents empirical evidence in support of the contention that lending policy continues to follow a familiar pattern, namely, in spite of rhetorical commitment to poverty reduction worldwide, Bank funds do not always go to the world’s poorest countries, nor are they used to finance projects that most directly affect the poor in borrowing countries. Finally, in Part IV the study ponders whether the World Bank should be reformed or rethought (i.e., eliminated). |
| URI: | http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp0100000282s |
| ISSN: | 2869781598 9782869781597 |
| Related resource: | http://www.codesria.org |
| Appears in Collections: | Serials and series reports (Publicly Accessible) - CODESRIA |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gros.pdf | 385.01 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Download |
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