The World Bank, Governance and Theories of Political Action in Africa

Abstract

This article considers the World Bank as a political thinker. This involves an interpretation of the values, methodologies, and theoretical references contained within the Bank's governance documentation. Generally, the Bank steers away from a serious engagement with the nature of states, or the dynamics of reform execution, even in its more detailed policy documents in reform areas such as administrative reform. But, by looking at the World Bank's involvement in African states, we can understand the ways in which the World Bank works with certain expectations concerning how reforms will work. The article critically analyses the Bank's 'political vision' by comparing it with prominent theories of African politics. The article concludes that the World Bank's governance agenda misses three pivotal aspects of African politics: the unity of political and economic power, the extreme openness of African states to external pressures, and the salience of historically-embedded cultural and political relations. These three points directly raise important questions about the prospects of good governance reforms in Africa, and the involvement of the Bank therein.

Political Trust, Corruption, and Ratings of the IMF and the World Bank

“…3 While some of these states have used IMF resources they have not used these resources under a conditional lending arrangement. 4 Many studies have questioned the World Bank's role in fighting corruption (Marquette 2004;Polzer 2001) and designing and implementing reforms in Africa (Harrison 2005 with a considerable number of citizens (but not a majority) awarding fewer than 5 out of 11 points. In the next section, we discuss the literature which attempts to explain variation in attitudes toward international economic organizations.…”

Fighting HIV and AIDS: Reconfiguring the State?

“…This shift in thinking has been attributed to developments in economic thinking (Bortolotti and Perotti 2007), wider Bank commitments to governance reform (Tuozzo 2004), and the logic that economic reform can only occur through social development (Griffin 2006, p. 574). The Bank's approach to governance reform, based upon capital and efficiency in public sector management, rule of law, accountability and transparency, has impacted on states in various ways (World Bank 1994, Tuozzo 2004, Harrison 2005. As Williams describes it, the Bank became engaged in 'detailed and intrusive activities' in countries in the pursuit of establishing market-based systems (Williams 1999, p. 80).…”

A candidate for relegation? Corruption, governance approaches and the (re)construction of post‐war states

“…Second, those external actors involved in the multifaceted reform process have also come with a relatively prescriptive framework to put in place, grounded in 'standard liberal democratic practices and norms -representative and responsible government, the rule of law, and the absence of corruption' with an emphasis that appears to favour or encourage 'a neoliberal faith in the superiority of market economies and in the importance of introducing market mechanisms into the public sector' (Bevir, 2004, p. 2; see also Harrison, 2005 and, for examples of similar practitioner perspectives, see DFID, 1997, p. 30, and the Australian Agency for International Development, 2000, p. 3).…”