•  
  •  
 

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

Abstract

Is the current development reform agenda, especially the one operationalized by the World Bank, Ideological? If so, does it matter? These are the two questions that animate this article. In answering both questions in the affirmative, the article first demonstrates how the current development reform agenda is Ideological. It then discusses why and how it matters that the development reform agenda is Ideological. First, the article argues that Ideological rendering of the development reform agenda effectively weakens the ability of Third World countries to articulate their economic and foreign policies in ways that would benefit their citizenry the most. Second, since the World Bank, and other international financial institutions (IFIs), are key players in the development reform agenda, as well as international organizations meant to reflect the collective will of their members, the charge of Ideological bias should be taken more seriously than it has been in the past. Third, the Ideology of reform and development enables the construction of a discourse which obfuscates the real causes of poverty and "underdevelopment," and therefore, undermines the efforts to find real solutions to world poverty. Fourth, and related, the Ideological development discourse thus produced facilitates the building of stable alliances between national political and economic elites in Third World countries, IFIs, and multinational corporations. These alliances are sometimes at odds with one another, but overall, they operate to stabilize the international economic system as presently configured by containing any serious threat of major rapture. These alliances therefore ensure the continued underdevelopment of the Third World and undermine the very goal of development for which these IFIs were formed.

Disciplines

Banking and Finance Law | Law

Download

Share

COinS