Banking on Democracy: agrarian development, negotiated reforms, and the political-economy of land issues in post-apartheid South Africa
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The Bank throughout the yearsThe World Bank over time has adapted its functions to react to changing world conditions as well as the demands of its membership[ CITATION Hol03 \l 7177 ]. At its inception, the World Bank was very limited in its contributions to the emerging world economy; then termed the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the institution was mandated with the restoration of European economies devastated by the war – during this time peace was fundamental to the question of development. The overarching objective of the IBRD entailed aiding and financing the expansion of developmental capacity for war-torn countries. Following this minor role, in the 1950s the Bank expanded its operations to project lending for developing countries in good financial standing [ CITATION Kap97 \l 7177 ]. In 1960, the establishment of the International Development Association (IDA) expanded the Bank’s operations to include the financing of development for less creditworthy members[ CITATION Wor22 \l 7177 ]. At this point in time, the World Bank had come to view poverty as a great hindrance to development; thus, to fulfil its objective of ensuring equal global development the Bank adopted poverty alleviation and meeting the basic needs as part of its mandate in the 1960s and 1970s. During McNamara’s tenure the World Bank was a development institution at its peak[CITATION Pee09 \t \l 7177 ]; the basic needs strategy both reflected and expanded prevailing frames through which development was understood, transcending the long-standing view that equated economic output with broader development. The global debt crisis of the 1980s was marked by the intensification of the neoliberal agenda in the global economic order and the inner workings of the Bank were in no way exempt from this trend. The shock of the debt crises in the 1980s was primarily absorbed by debtor countries – the Third World[ CITATION Dep17 \l 7177 ] – such that many countries found themselves unable to meet their balance of payments. External political events, especially the US treasury’s decision to cut US’s contribution to the IDA, this throttled and undermined the Bank’s capacity as a developmental institution by limiting the capital allocated for soft-loans[ CITATION Pee09 \l 7177 ]. This ultimately forced the Bank to (re)conceptualise its lending operations which culminated in the adoption of structural adjustment loans as the Bank’s primary modus operandi. By the end of the 1980s, the World Bank had come under much criticism for the austere economic measures stipulated by its structural adjustment lending programmes and the negative consequences these had on the living conditions in developing countries[ CITATION Bel00 \l 7177 ]. The World Bank of the ‘90s and ‘00s was one that concerned with a holistic development that addresses the issues of private sector development, social development, governance, the environment, and debt[ CITATION Shi98 \l 7177 ]. Though the Bank did not fully purge the presence of neoliberalism, their allegiance to it as a developmental model was notably tempered (ibid). The turn of the millennium saw the advent of a yet another role assumed by the institution. In addition to its function as the global financier and overseer of development, the World Bank contributes to a wider community concerned with the complex question of global development – and the bankrolling thereof – by being an important and copious source of information[ CITATION Wor22 \l 7177 ]. To put it in Wade’s [CITATION Wad07 \n \t \l 7177 ] “the Bank enjoys a unique position as a generator of ideas about economic development”[CITATION Wad07 \p 5 \n \y \t \l 7177 ]. Download 32.53 Kb. Share with your friends:
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