The World Bank’s Structural Adjustment Programs And Their Effect on State Sovereignty (Paper Proposal)

                                                                                                          Antora Rahman

                                                                                                                                             POLI 480 W

                                                                                                                                             Professor Shirk

                                                                                                                                             10/30/2013

          With a realist perspective in mind, one can say that the natural world is anarchic; the motivation for survival is self-preservation. This assumption relates directly to the nature of sovereign states in an international system whose chaotic temperament inevitably leads to war. In an effort to offer some semblance of peace and order as well as promote growth and development so that even the smallest and weakest of states have a chance of survival for better reasons other than self preservation, international institutions are birthed. Such organizations exist in the international system are the boundaries between order and turmoil. These establishments set conditions to which sovereign states have to come into terms with and in return, sovereign states receive the security necessary to keep them from being overcome with pandemonium lurking on the other side. With that said, to what lengths does a state go to getting such security until it loses its standing as a sovereign state? Where does one draw the line?

          There are several international institutions which police the system and try to keep order among sovereign states, or at least states that are recognized and meet the conditions. Such institutions include the United Nations—seeks to “maintain peace and security by peer mediating relationships among states as well as promoting human rights, social progress, and development”; the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—“maintains and orderly system of payments and receipts between nations”; and the World Bank—which primarily focuses on development of states. So let’s forget everything else and discuss development. There is a huge gap between a developed country and developing countries. In order to bridge that gap, the World Bank strives to attack poverty as the key culprit. Its solution: structural adjustment—the path to economic growth and development.

           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 these institutions have the upper hand in decision-making which in turn seems to strip away the sovereign standing of such states.

Annotated Bibliography:

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

International Monetary Fund. N.p.: Global Exchange, 1994.

·         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.

Corbo, Vittorio, Moris Goldstein, and Mohsin S. Khan, eds. Growth Oriented

Adjustment Programs. N.p.: International Monetary Fund and The World Bank, 1987.

·         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. JSTOR. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.

·         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. JSTOR. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.

·         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.