scholarly journals “We Cannot Please Everyone”: Contentions over Adjustment in EPRDF Ethiopia (1991–2018)

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (S29) ◽  
pp. 69-91
Author(s):  
Mehdi Labzaé ◽  
Sabine Planel
Keyword(s):  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Developmental State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
State Control ◽  
International Financial Institutions ◽  
Agricultural Policies ◽  
Tight Control ◽  
Open Expression

AbstractThis article looks at how rural inhabitants navigated state power under a regime led by a former socialist party that negotiated its conversion to a market economy while keeping tight control on the whole society. In that regard, it addresses adjustment in a very specific context, by analysing a distinctive chronology, raising the ruling party's ability to negotiate with the international financial institutions, and considering popular reactions from a rural point of view. The regime led by the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) managed to delay measures of structural adjustment during the 1990s and 2000s while deepening structures of state control it partly inherited from the former military junta. Brutal structural adjustment plans were refused, while international financial institutions were kept away from the Ethiopian government's policy mix, by way of elaborate ideological and institutional arrangements. The EPRDF coined its own version of the “developmental state” and renewed state control of the economy while deepening its articulation to global markets. Under the EPRDF, all sectors of society and especially peasantries were closely monitored and mobilized in the name of development. But although the open expression of dissent remained rare, peasants resorted to many strategies to cope with political control and to some extent divert it. By taking agricultural policies as a case study, the article describes peasant practices and questions differences between resistance, false compliance, and diversion, underlining how blurred such labels can actually be.

Economic Stagnation in Sub-Sahara Africa and Breaking the Implicit Bargain

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-34
Author(s):  
James J. Hentz
Keyword(s):  
Economic Reform ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
International Financial Institutions ◽  
Structural Adjustment Programs ◽  
Economic Stagnation ◽  
Adjustment Programs

Economic stagnation in most of Sub-Sahara Africa is so persistent that “afro-pessimism” has gone from a term of art to common usage. Africa is entering its second decade of economic reform through neoliberal Stabilization Programs (STABs) and Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs). There is little evidence that these reforms work. Africa is largely to blame, but so too are the logically flawed structural adjustment programs propagated by the International Financial Institutions (IFIs).

18. Globalization, Development, and Security

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nana K. Poku ◽  
Jacqueline Therkelsen
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
International Financial Institutions ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
Structural Adjustment Programmes ◽  
Harmful Effects

This chapter explores the interrelationships between globalization, development, and security. It shows how globalization, as a neoliberal ideology for development promoted by key international financial institutions, deepens inequality between and within nations on a global scale. This exacerbates global insecurity through a growing sense of injustice and grievance that may lead to rebellion and radicalization. The chapter first considers the neoliberalism of globalization before presenting the case for conceptualizing globalization as a neoliberal ideology for development. It then discusses the legacy of structural adjustment programmes and the harmful effects of neoliberal ideology on societies, particularly across the developing world. Finally, it looks at two case studies to illustrate the link between uneven globalization and global insecurity: the Egypt uprising of 2011 and the Greek economic crisis of 2010.

Indigenous Rights, Resistance, and the Law: Lessons from a Guatemalan Mine

2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 91-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda M. Fulmer ◽  
Angelina Snodgrass Godoy ◽  
Philip Neff
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
International Law ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
International Financial Institutions ◽  
Extractive Industry ◽  
Corporate Social

AbstractUsing a case study of a controversial mine in an indigenous area of Guatemala, this article explores the transnational dynamics of development and regulation of large-scale extractive industry projects in the developing world. It examines the roles played in the Marlin mine dispute by national law, international law, international financial institutions, and corporate social responsibility. It concludes that these legal regimes have a role in protecting human rights but have not addressed the fundamental questions of democratic governance raised by this case.

scholarly journals Structural Adjustment, Employment, Income Distribution and Poverty

1994 ◽  
Vol 33 (4II) ◽  
pp. 901-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. R. Kemal
Keyword(s):  
Income Distribution ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
International Financial Institutions ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Structural Problems ◽  
Output Stability ◽  
Structural Weakness

The Structural Adjustment and Stabilisation Programmes of the IMF, World Bank and other international financial institutions for Pakistan have called for a reduction in the fiscal deficit, a restricted role of government in the economy, rationalisation of tax structure, removal of subsidies on consumption and production, etc. with a view to fostering efficiency, higher levels of output, stability of prices, etc. To what extent these objectives have been realised has rarely been examined. Firoze (1986) is probably the only exception who concludes that because of the structural weakness and adherence to just financial criteria these programmes have resulted in accumulating structural problems rather than alleviating them. These programmes also have significant implications for employment, poverty and income distribution.

18. Globalization, Development, and Security

2018 ◽  
pp. 268-282
Author(s):  
Nana K. Poku ◽  
Jacqueline Therkelsen
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
International Financial Institutions ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
Structural Adjustment Programmes ◽  
Harmful Effects

This chapter explores the interrelationships between globalization, development, and security. It shows how globalization, as a neoliberal ideology for development promoted by key international financial institutions, deepens inequality between and within nations on a global scale. This exacerbates global insecurity through a growing sense of injustice and grievance that may lead to rebellion and radicalization. The chapter first considers the neoliberalism of globalization before presenting the case for conceptualizing globalization as a neoliberal ideology for development. It then discusses the legacy of structural adjustment programmes and the harmful effects of neoliberal ideology on societies, particularly across the developing world. Finally, it looks at two case studies to illustrate the link between uneven globalization and global insecurity: the Egypt uprising of 2011 and the Greek economic crisis of 2010.

How Transnational Environmental Advocacy Networks Socialize International Financial Institutions: A Case Study of the International Finance Corporation

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 95-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Park
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
International Finance ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
World Bank Group ◽  
Transnational Advocacy ◽  
International Financial Institutions ◽  
Advocacy Networks ◽  
International Finance Corporation ◽  
Transnational Advocacy Networks

Environmental organizations, characterized here as transnational advocacy networks, use various strategies to “green” international financial institutions (IFIs). This article goes beyond analyzing network strategies to examine how transnational advocacy networks reconstitute the identity of IFIs. This, it is argued, results from processes of socialization: social influence, persuasion and coercion by lobbying. A case study of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), as a member of the World Bank Group, is used to analyze how an IFI internalized sustainable development norms. The IFC finances private enterprise in developing countries by providing venture capital for private projects. Transnational advocacy networks socialized the IFC through influencing its projects, policies and institutions via direct and indirect interactions to the point where the organization now sees itself as a sustainable development financier. This article applies constructivist insights to the greening process in order to demonstrate how socialization can reshape an IFI's identity.

International Financial Institutions and Financial Accountability

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kunibert Raffer
Keyword(s):  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Market Mechanism ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Incentive System ◽  
International Financial Institutions ◽  
Financial Accountability ◽  
Adjustment Program ◽  
Western Market ◽  
Additional Income

While useful proposals to reform International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have been widely discussed, the lack of meaningful financial accountability has received little attention. Considering the substantial damage done by IFIs, this is surprising both from an ethical and an economist's point of view. In a market economy anyone must face the economic consequences of their actions and decisions. If consultants give advice negligently or without obeying minimal professional standards, they have to pay compensation for the damage they have caused. National liability and tort laws serve the purpose of compensating those suffering unlawful damages and of deterring such behavior. By contrast, tortious damage caused by IFIs must be paid by IFIs' borrowers, including many of the world's poorest people. IFIs may even gain financially from their own negligence by extending new loans necessary to repair damages done by their prior loans. One failed adjustment program calls for the next. This mechanism makes IFI-flops generate IFI-jobs and additional income. This perverted incentive system rewarding errors, negligence, and even violations of the very constitutions of IFIs is absolutely at odds with the principles on which Western market economies rest. It must be brought to an end. This essay presents the idea of financial accountability, showing how easily reforms making IFIs financially accountable could be implemented. Moreover, embracing financial accountability would bring IFI operations closer to the intentions of their founders, who wanted IFIs subject to the basic legal and economic concepts of financial accountability not exempt from it. The market mechanism and its beneficial incentive system must finally be brought to IFIs.

Global Capitalism and the Neoliberal Privatization of Energy Reserves: A Mexico Case Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 103-115
Author(s):  
Marcelo del Castillo-Mussot ◽  
Jorge A. Montemayor-Aldrete ◽  
Jeb Sprague-Silgado ◽  
Alfredo de la Lama Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Drastic Change ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Energy Reserves ◽  
Legal Basis ◽  
International Financial Institutions ◽  
Hydrocarbon Reserves

Abstract In 2013 state officials operating through the three federal government branches of Mexico mutilated the country’s constitution, privatizing upwards of seventy-five percent of the country’s hydrocarbon reserves. This article suggests that this neoliberal strategy, carried out by transnationally oriented elites operating through state apparatuses in Mexico (and promoted by officials in Washington and within the International Financial Institutions), is meant to benefit transnational capital. Such drastic change to Mexico’s legal order, we argue, in fact violated the country’s constitution and symbolized a break with the country’s earlier model of development. The federal government’s anti-constitutional behavior, specifically its violation of Article 136 of the constitution, provides a legal basis for dismissing top officials from their posts and moving toward a constitutional assembly.

The Troika’s conditionalities during the Greek financial crisis of 2010–2014: the Washington Consensus is alive, well, and here to stay

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
John Marangos
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Tax Policy ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Washington Consensus ◽  
Tax Revenue ◽  
International Financial Institutions ◽  
The World ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

There is a widespread perception around the world that the Washington Consensus is dead. In contrast to the world tide prior to the global financial crisis of 2008, this paper aims to demonstrate that the conditionalities inspired by the Washington Consensus and imposed by the international financial institutions are still pertinent. Using as a case study the Greek financial crisis of 2010–2014, it is verified that the Troika’s austerity imposed conditionalities that neatly fit within the Washington Consensus framework. However, consistent with the neoclassical framework, the Washington Consensus recommends the reduction in taxes, whereas the Troika’s austerity conditionalities entail an increase in taxes. It appears that a striking paradox is present, in that the neoclassical tax conditionality policy is sacrificed in the name of increased tax revenue. This allegedly perplexing tax policy and blatant conflict, which appears to controvert the very essence of the neoclassical ideological framework of the Washington Consensus and the IMF, will be further explored.

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