Thai social movements and the anti-ADB campaign

Tadem, Teresa S. Encarnacion

doi:10.1080/00472330380000241

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…These campaigns occurred within the context of broader opposition to the ADB's neoliberal agenda (Oehlers 2006;Rosser 2009). Civil society activists conducted mass protests at the Bank's annual meetings, peaking in Chiang Mai in Thailand in 2000 (Tadem 2003). Such opposition took the ADB Management by surprise and led Executive Directors to push for new measures to monitor the organization's effectiveness, transparency and accountability.…”

Section: Something New: the Adb Institutional Isomorphism And Accounmentioning

confidence: 97%

Institutional isomorphism and the Asian Development Bank's accountability mechanism: something old, something new; something borrowed, something blue?

Park¹

2014

The Pacific Review

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In the 1990s Multilateral Development Banks created accountability mechanisms (AMs) that allowed people affected by development projects redress. Currently undertheorized, this paper examines how and why the Asian Development Bank (ADB) created an AM, and whether the AM serves its purpose to hold the ADB to account and to provide 'fair hearing of the views of the affected group'. This article argues that the ADB created a new AM because of institutional isomorphism, borrowing the idea of the AM from the World Bank as a result of coercive and mimetic isomorphic processes. Further, that the ADB introduced a mechanism ill-suited to the pre-existing (old) organizational culture of the ADB, which is based on consensus and hierarchical rule-following in the context of ADB operations to further economic growth while upholding state sovereignty. Despite its restructure and recent review, the mechanism's weakness was revealed through a stand-off between China and the AM over an investigation begun in 2009 (creating something 'blue'). The paper concludes that the AM's ability to serve its purpose will remain hampered as long as ADB maintains consensus around economic growth and state sovereignty over providing recourse to affected people.

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Section: Something New: the Adb Institutional Isomorphism And Accounmentioning

confidence: 97%

Institutional isomorphism and the Asian Development Bank's accountability mechanism: something old, something new; something borrowed, something blue?

Park¹

2014

The Pacific Review

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“…NGOs engaged in protests over the neoliberal approach to development (Oehlers, ) as well as demanding that the ADB establish environmental and social policies. Taking the Bank by surprise, this opposition culminated in mass protests in 2000 at the bank's Annual General Meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand (Tadem, ). Propelled by the protest, donor member states pushed the ADB to formalize environmental and social ‘safeguard’ policies.…”

Section: Accountability At the Adbmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Accountability in Practice: The Asian Development Bank's Accountability Mechanism

Park

2015

Global Policy

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Intergovernmental Organizations (IOs) such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) were created by and for states. The ADB was established to further economic growth and cooperation in the Asia Pacific. At the behest of its powerful member states the ADB created an accountability mechanism (AM) in 1995. This mechanism was created to provide recourse to people that might be or are 'directly materially and adversely affected' by a development project financed by the ADB. As with the other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), the creation of such an 'external accountability mechanism' recognized a legally relevant relationship between an IO and private persons. This article investigates the operations of the ADB's AM. Arguably, the ADB's AM has brought some improvement to affected people through its mediation, compliance investigations and monitoring. Yet analysis of the mechanism also demonstrates that progress is hampered by a lack of access, transparency, Developing Member Country (DMC) resistance, staff obstruction and a lack of independence in the mechanism itself. Policy Implications• Continued state support of the external AMs of the MDBs must rest on recognising the ability of these mechanisms to improve the plight of project affected people, while continuing to address their limitations.

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“…The Thai social movements wanted to get the attention of the Thai middle class or the Bangkokians, who abhor violence. 71 This Thai experience was quite unique, as attested to by their Filipino anti-Asian Development Bank activist counterparts who have a difficult time drawing media and public attention to their own protest actions against the Bank's policies on energy and water privatization.…”

Section: Challenges Confronting the Sites Of Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creating Spaces for Asian Interaction Through the Anti-Globalization Campaigns in the Region

Tadem

2012

Mod. Asian Stud.

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This paper discusses the political opportunity structures which facilitated the creation of sites of interaction and protest against the Asian Development Bank during the Bank's Annual General Meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2000. The factors which facilitated the coming together of Thai social movements and their regional and international counterparts are mainly their shared critique of the neo-liberal paradigm and its adverse effects on their respective countries. The strategies they used to highlight these effects enhanced their sites of engagement and confrontation with the Bank and included dialogue with Bank officials, demonstrations, and the use of the media to highlight their concerns. Importance was also placed on the manner in which they were able to mobilize resources for the anti-Asian Development Bank campaigns and the process by which they framed their issues to gain the sympathy and support of the public. The 1997 Asian financial crisis, which highlighted the shortcomings of the Bank's development paradigm, as well as the ongoing democratization process in Thailand during that period, provided the impetus in fostering the antiglobalization alliances of local and transnational social movements in a common venue.

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Thai social movements and the anti-ADB campaign

Cited by 8 publications

References 2 publications

Institutional isomorphism and the Asian Development Bank's accountability mechanism: something old, something new; something borrowed, something blue?

Institutional isomorphism and the Asian Development Bank's accountability mechanism: something old, something new; something borrowed, something blue?

Assessing Accountability in Practice: The Asian Development Bank's Accountability Mechanism

Creating Spaces for Asian Interaction Through the Anti-Globalization Campaigns in the Region

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