Economic Neoliberalism And International Development

This book provides a robust theoretical and empirical exploration of the interrelationship between economic neoliberalism and international development. Putting the experiences of developing and transitional economies centre stage, the book investigates how their economic policies compare with the nature of economic liberalism during and after the significant economic reforms which took place from the mid-1980s. Beginning with two chapters which provide an introduction to the concept of economic neoliberalism, the second section focuses on its application to ‘practice’, and the book moves on to country/regional case studies, taken from Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Latin America, China, and Eastern Europe. The book closes with some concluding remarks summarising some of the principal findings. Bringing together a wealth of expertise, this book clarifies controversial economic and political issues which have been significantly misunderstood in public discourse, and as such, it will be of interest to a range of researchers interested in the economic, social and political dynamics of developing and transitional countries.

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, University of Birmingham, course: MSc. International Development, language: English, abstract: The history of development over the last century has been one of competing theories and developmental models. From time to time certain models dominated the theoretical and practical agenda. These models of development had - and still have - their own advantages and disadvantages, advocates and opponents, strengths and weaknesses. Neo-liberalism is one of the models that was studied most deeply in terms of its positive and negative impacts on development generally and on the state role specifically. Since the 1970s neoliberal approach was widely applied in different countries around the world, including developing and developed countries with the assistance of the International Financial Institutions (IFI) that evidently advocate for neoliberalism in developing countries. Therefore, strong debates on the efficiency and validity of this approach were developed (Greig et al., 2007). This paper will discuss neoliberalism as one of the development models. It attempts to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the neoliberal approach to development. It will start by reviewing the emergence and evolution of neoliberalism. Then, some of the strengths and weaknesses of neoliberalism will be presented. Chilean and Egyptian case studies will be briefly highlighted in order to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of neoliberalism. Finally, the conclusion will be presented.

With the world’s attention fixed on the travails of leading global economies due to a still unfolding financial crisis of gigantic proportions, there has been a studied silence on the fate of the third world as the malaise increasingly impacts it. This silence is particularly disturbing because questions of potential pitfalls in the neoliberal policy package, which the third world (unlike Western Europe and Japan) was largely forced to adopt, were never countenanced. as One third world state after another discovered that international institutions were in effect hostile to their governments if they chose alternative developmental models or otherwise resisted the neoliberal triage of liberalization, privatization and deregulation. This collection is a tour de force, effectively countering not only the neoliberal ideology of development as a whole but the marginalizing within today’s mainstream crisis discourse of any discussion of the monstrous misallocation of global resources wrought by the so-called “Washington Consensus” and the suffering and destruction it has wreaked on third world peoples and economies. This edited volume is intended as both a textbook for introductory classes in global development or area studies and as a conduit for advanced students, policymakers, NGO activists and an educated readership to gain knowledge about the socio-economic conditions existing across much of the world we live in, and the policies that brought them about. The specially commissioned and peer reviewed chapters are written by experts in the fields of economics, politics, sociology and international studies. Chapter authors hail from around the world including: Brazil, Mexico, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, South Korea and Thailand. The countries/regions’ neoliberal experience and potential futures covered in this book are: Brazil, China, Cuba, Egypt, Mexico, Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam), South Africa, South Korea, Syria, Thailand and Venezuela.

This book analyses the progress and failures of capitalist development against the backdrop of an increasingly globalised world economy organised on neoliberal principles. It brings together eminent writers on the political economy of international development such as Kari Polanyi-Levitt, Norman Girvan, Osvaldo Sunkel, Paul Bowles, Manfred Bienefeld and Walden Bellos, to examine from a critical perspective the contemporary dynamics of a system in crisis--issues of capitalist development and globalization within the neoliberal world order. The essays, written in tribute to Surendra Patel for his contribution to the field of development studies, cover subjects including the financial crisis of 2008, the regional dynamics of neoliberal globalization, democracy and development, the political economy of natural resource extraction, and the formation of a postneoliberal state oriented towards a new economic model. Drawing on an analysis of the development process in the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa and the Philippines, it considers the historical foundations that impact on economic growth and technological transformation, and evaluates the relationship between capital and the state, and the role of NGOs and social movements in the context of the debate on neoliberal globalization. Development in an Era of Neoliberal Globalization will be of interest to students and scholars of international politics and economic development, the political economy of globalisation, the sociology and politics of development, and developments in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Development’s current focus – poverty reduction and good governance – signals a turn away from the older neoliberal preoccupation with structural adjustment, privatization and downsizing the state. For some, the new emphases on empowering and securing the poor through basic service delivery, local partnership, decentralization and institution building constitute a decisive break with the past and a whole set of new development possibilities beyond neoliberalism. Taking a wider historical perspective, this book charts the emergence of poverty reduction and governance at the centre of development. It shows that the Poverty Reduction paradigm does indeed mark a shift in the wider liberal project that has underpinned development: precisely what is new, and what this means for how the poor are governed, are described here in detail. This book provides a compelling history of development doctrine and practice, and in particular offers the first comprehensive account of the last twenty years, and development’s shift towards a new political economy of institution building, decentralized governance and local partnerships. The story is illustrated with extensive case studies from first hand experience in Vietnam, Uganda, Pakistan and New Zealand.

Any student, academic, or practitioner wanting to succeed in development studies, radical or mainstream, must understand the World Bank's role and the evolution of its thinking and activities. The Political Economy of Development provides tools for gaining this understanding and applies them across a range of topics. The research, practice and scholarship of development are always set against the backdrop of the World Bank, whose formidable presence shapes both development practice and thinking. This book brings together academics that specialize in different subject areas of development and reviews their findings in the context of the World Bank as knowledge bank, policy-maker and financial institution. The volume offers a compelling contribution to our understanding of development studies and of development itself. The Political Economy of Development is an invaluable critical resource for students, policy-makers, and activists in development studies.

Neoliberalism, which advocates free markets without government interference, has become increasingly utilized and controversial over the last three and a half decades. This book presents case studies of Chile and Taiwan, two countries that seemingly prospered from adopting neoliberal strategies, and finds that their developmental histories challenge neoliberalism in fundamental ways. From one perspective, the political economies of Chile and Taiwan might appear to be poster children for neoliberalism. Both took aggressive policy actions (Taiwan in the 1960s and Chile in the 1970s) to create market-driven economies that were well integrated into the capitalist global economy. Subsequently, these two countries were cited as ‘economic miracles’ that opened their markets, resulting in rapid economic growth and development. A closer examination of the two nations, however, turns up very significant differences between them. In particular, Taiwan, with its much more statist approach to development, outperformed Chile by a considerable margin; and some of the experiences of Chile departed markedly from neoliberal predictions. The authors argue that Taiwan’s strategy was the more successful of the two, primarily because it discarded the ideology of neoliberalism and unfettered laissez-faire. Scholars, educators, and students studying globalization, political economy, and/or economic development will find this book an irreplaceable addition to the discussion of neoliberalism.

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Globalization, Political Economics, grade: A-, Saint Mary's University (International Development Studies), course: International Development Studies Theory and Practice - Neoliberal Globalization, language: English, abstract: This essay looks at neoliberalism as the main globalization dynamic and consequently discusses its implications for today's global political economy, arguing that despite the neoliberal development rhetoric of mass prosperity and sustainable development, neoliberalism along with globalization has led to the decline of the living and working conditions of millions of people around the world.