Reinventing the World Bank - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801487927 ISBN 13: 9780801487927

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2002

Synopsis

Largely ignored for decades, the World Bank increasingly finds itself at the center of an international political maelstrom. Attacked by the Right as the last bastion of socialism and by the Left as an instrument of economic imperialism, the Bank has struggled to adapt to a changing post-Cold War era. Still the world's leading development institution in terms of size and influence, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development's failure to articulate and implement a convincing strategy to reduce world poverty has left it vulnerable to the charge that, at least in its present form, it has outlived its usefulness.

In a book neither funded nor controlled by its subject, leading North American and British scholars critically examine the World Bank. They contend that an institution that has grown to unmanageable proportions through internally driven change cannot realistically be expected to effect its own reform program. All the Bank's previous attempts at self-redesign have failed, and the contributors argue it is beyond reform; it must be reinvented.

Reinvention involves a thoroughgoing and externally controlled process of transformation, starting from basic principles and encompassing three closely related dimensions: operations, or the fit between the Bank's lending program and its development objectives; concepts, its vision of development and anti-poverty strategy; and power, which includes the Bank's relationships with member countries and the wider public, as well as structures of internal governance and accountability.

About this title

About the Author:

Jonathan R. Pincus is Lecturer in Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His books include Class Power and Agrarian Change: Land and Labour in Rural West Java. Jeffrey A. Winters is Associate Professor of Political Economy at Northwestern University and author of Power in Motion: Capital Mobility and the Indonesian State, also from Cornell.

Review:

"We sorely need a sophisticated political sociology of international financial institutions and this fine volume is an important step in that direction. It presents an informed and balanced view of an embattled organization that some regard as too unwieldy to be reinvented, even reformed. The stakes are high; the issues real. Reinventing the World Bank will be an asset to scholars, students, and policy makers of all stripes."

(Thomas Callaghy, University of Pennsylvania)

"Reinventing the World Bank, while nodding to the Bank's efforts under James Wolfensohn to 'walk its reform talk,' raises serious questions about the depth and quality of these efforts at reinvention and makes a persuasive case that the Bank is trapped by a handful of its real power-brokers and a Byzantine governance structure. The World Bank's 'reinvention' has fostered change that only dilutes its sense of purpose and emphasized strategies and tactics in areas where it has little expertise. Along with a genuinely accessible and multifaceted evaluation of this critically important institution―the Vatican of development practice of our era―the authors offer a compelling alternative future vision for the Bank while remaining sanguine about the potential for its realization."

(Raymond C. Offenheiser, President, Oxfam America)

"When the infamous Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks he is reported to have replied, Because that's where the money is. A new book shows how important this aphorism is when talked aobut the taxpayer-supported multilateral development banks. Reinventing the World Bank not only conclude that the world's largest development bank is failing, but that reform can be achieved only by increasing accountability through outside oversight."

(Martin Edwin Anderson)

"The World Bank has had a larger role in shaping economic policy in the developing world than any other institution. Reinventing the World Bank is a searching, no-holds-barred examination of the institution. Even well-informed readers will find it difficult to think about the World Bank in quite the same way after reading this book."

(Dani Rodrik, Harvard University)

About this edition

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0801487927
• ISBN 13: 9780801487927
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280
• Editor: Pincus Jonathan R., Winters Jeffrey A.