This unique book explores a very broad range of ideas and institutions and provides thorough and detailed case studies in the context of broader theoretical analysis. Key topics such as poverty, global governance, sustainable development and the environment are closely examined, with detailed case studies of the World Bank, the WTO, the IMF, Asian Development Bank, UN Development Programme and the OECD's Development Assistance Committee. The impact multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and IMF have on development is hotly debated, but few doubt their power and influence. This book examines the concepts that have powerfully influenced development policy and, more broadly, looks at the role of ideas in international development institutions and how they have affected current development discourse. The authors analyze why some ideas are taken up by these institutions, how the ideas travel within the systems and how they are translated into policy, modified, distorted or resisted.
Author(s): Morten Boas & Desmond McNeill
Edition: 1st ed
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 272
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
List of contributors......Page 10
Foreword......Page 12
Preface......Page 16
Acknowledgements......Page 18
List of abbreviations......Page 19
Introduction: power and ideas in multilateral institutions: towards an interpretative framework......Page 20
The development discourse in the multilateral system......Page 32
Contesting policy ideas from below......Page 43
The informal sector: biography of an idea......Page 60
Policy stories and knowledge-based regimes: the case of international population policy......Page 75
The World Bank and the environment......Page 91
Sustainable development and the World Trade Organization......Page 114
Social capital and the World Bank......Page 127
Hegemony, neoliberal 'good governance' and the International Monetary Fund: a Gramscian perspective......Page 143
Balancing between East and West: the Asian Development Bank's policy on good governance......Page 156
'Good governance' and the Development Assistance Committee: ideas and organizational constraints......Page 170
The evolution of the concept of poverty in multilateral financial institutions: the case of the World Bank......Page 183
The role of ideas in the United Nations Development Programme......Page 197
The power of ideas: across the constructivist/realist divide......Page 212
Ideas and institutions: who is framing what?......Page 225
Bibliography......Page 244
Index......Page 270
