The World Bank’s Structural Adjustment Programs And Their Effect on State Sovereignty

Antora Rahman

POLI 480 W

Professor Shirk

11/20/13

Outline

I.                    Thesis Paragraph:

Structural adjustment programs are policies which are enforced on developing nations—they call for government austerity and increased privatization while externally they reduce trade barriers for such countries for foreign investments. While the expected results should portray the desired economic outcomes, they seem to do exactly the opposite, creating a wider gap between developed and developing both domestically and internationally. In the process, countries which are put on these programs are basically letting the World Bank have the upper hand in decision-making which in turn seems to strip away the sovereign standing of such states.

II.                  Body Paragraphs:

a.      The World Bank’s origin and background

b.      Its short term and long term goals

c.       Structural adjustment policies and results

d.      How such policies infringe upon the sovereignty on the developing world

III.                Conclusion:

Research has shown that structural adjustment, rather than fulfilling its intended purposes, makes the developing world dependent upon the Bank, and in doing so, attacks such nations’ sovereignty. The results are proof that the World Bank needs to move away from such policies and look towards reform.

      IV: Annotated Bibliography:

             Danaher, Kevin. 50 Years Is Enough: The Case against the World Bank and the

      International Monetary Fund. Boston, MA: South End, 1994. Print.

·         This book contains criticism which questions the efficiency of the World Bank and IMF. It discusses issues ranging from policies to inner workings of these institutions, essentially concluding that they are failing in their mission in aiding developing countries.

            Broad, Robin. Unequal Alliance: The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund,

      and the Philippines. Berkeley: University of California, 1988.

·         By using the Phillippines as the primary example, this source provides a specific analysis of “structural adjustment programs” and their limitations; in conclusion, these adjustment programs aren’t really good solutions.

           Corbo, Vittorio, Morris Goldstein, and Mohsin S. Khan. Growth-oriented Adjustment

      Programs. Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund, 1987. Print.

·         This particular source advocates the reasons why growth programs are key solutions in tackling Third World debt. It provides a positive outlook on how these policies can be implemented and build platforms for developing countries’ economic success.

         Alexander, Nancy. "Paying for Education: How the World Bank and the International

       Monetary Fund Influence Education in Developing Countries." Peabody Journal of                 Education 76.3 (2001): 285-338. 

·         Education is an important factor of economic growth in developing countries. This source analyzes current approaches and involvements of the World Bank and the IMF in education and what changes/improvements need to be implemented in order to produce better results.

         Brune, Nancy, Geoffrey Garrett, and Bruce Kogut. "The International Monetary Fund and

      the Global Spread of Privatization." IMF Staff Papers 51.2 (2004): 195-219. 

·         Unlike the majority negative criticism of the pure capitalistic backbone of the IMF and the World Bank, this source discusses the reasons why and how “privatization” is actually helping developing economies.

         Shah, Anup. “Structural Adjustment—a Major Cause of Poverty.” Global Issues. 24 Mar.

      2013. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.

·         Instead of helping poor countries, structural adjustment is actually causing more poverty by cutting government spending in half and privatizing more: creating huge inequality.

        Woods, Ngaire. The Globalizers: The IMF, the World Bank, and Their Borrowers. Ithaca,

      NY: Cornell UP, 2006. Print.

·         This source analyzes the “relationship between political power, economists, and borrowing governments in the work of the IMF and the World Bank. It sets out to untangle how politics, ideology, and economics drive them” (Woods 2006).

        Stiglitz, Joseph E. "Democratizing the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank:

     Governance and Accountability." Governance 16.1 (2003): 111-39. Wiley Online Library.   John Wiley & Sons. Web.

·         Stiglitz criticizes the IMF for having policies that are counterproductive to its goals and he uses the World Bank as an exemplary role model for the IMF to follow in order to be successful.

        Easterly, William. "What Did Structural Adjustment Adjust? The Association of Policies and

      Growth with Repeated IMF and World Bank Adjustment Loans." Journal of Development Economics 76.1 (2005): 1-22. Science Direct. Elsevier B.V. Web.

·         Repetition of the same structural adjustment programs on the same countries have shown that there aren’t any positive outcomes of these programs and that the policies need to change.

        Biersteker, T. J. "Reducing the Role of the State in the Economy: A Conceptual Exploration of

       IMF and World Bank Prescriptions." International Studies Quarterly 34.4 (1990).

·         This is another source which looks into the roles of the World Bank and the IMF and finds that their policies and programs aren’t really “conducive to development” (Biersteker 1990).

        Babb, Sarah. "The Social Consequences of Structural Adjustment: Recent Evidence and 

                 Current Debates." Annual Review of Sociology 31 (2005): 199-222. JSTOR. Web. 12 

                 Nov. 2013.

·         Babb explores the societal themes of structural adjustment policies of the World Bank and IMF. Rather than focus on current themes, this author chooses to revisit older modes of "modernization and dependency through looking at recent literature addressing the social dimensions of recent trends".

        Radin, Dagmar. "World Bank Funding and Health Care Sector Performance in Central

      and Eastern Europe." International Political Science Review 9.3 (2008): 325-47.JSTOR.    Web. 12 Nov. 2013.

·         "This article tests hypotheses that those countries that perform better economically, that are more favorably evaluated by the World Bank, and that have more effective institutions are also more likely to benefit from World Bank assistance, through improvements in the performance of their health care sectors".

       Papava, Vladmir. "On the Role of the International Monetary Fund in the Post-

      Communist Transformation of Georgia." Emerging Markets Finance & Trade 39.5 (2003): 5- 26. JSTOR. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.

·         This particular piece discusses post-communist independent Georgia and it's advancement with the help of the IMF, even though there were errors mostly attributed to the Georgian government.

       Banya, Kingsley, and Juliet Elu. "The World Bank and Financing Higher Education in Sub-

      Saharan Africa." HIgher Education 42.1 (2001): 1-34. JSTOR. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.

·         "This article critically examines World Bank and other donor agency's policy changes toward financing of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. It concludes that policy vicissitudes have adversely affected these institutions. The recommendation is that the unique context of each state play a role in higher education financial policy formation and implementation."

        Bresser Pereira, Luis Carlos. "Development Economics and the World Bank's

      Identity Crisis."Review of International Political Economy 2.2 (1995): 211-47. JSTOR. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.

·         "In this article, the author, the Brazilian Finance Minister in the late 1980s, uses his insights and experience to examine critically the identity crisis of the World Bank. Trapped by the neo-liberal turn in 1980s, and unable to return to the Keynesian lending principles of earlier decades, the Bank is claimed to be facing an unsettled future in terms of its operational philosophy".