Rethinking the Left in Victory and Defeat: Introduction

2009 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Michael Hanagan
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
New World ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Political Opportunity Structure ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Crystal Ball ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

The collapse of neoliberalism since September and October of 2008 has been sudden and spectacular. The failure of the ideas sustaining the Washington Consensus and the practices of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund seems nearly complete. The new world we may be entering could have a dramatically different political opportunity structure than the old one. But what will take its place? What has the Left to offer? What has it learned in recent decades that have been filled with more defeats than victories? What will it have to offer right now when millions are seeking solutions? Our contributors possess no crystal ball. Our answers to these questions are framed historically. How have left movements learned from defeat in the past? What factors have enabled them to exploit moments of opportunity? Analyzing the immediate historical context to the present crisis, historians can suggest which measures promise the most hope of success and which seem doomed to failure. To this end, the papers in this collection concern themselves with left victory and defeat. They show that victory and defeat are more problematic than we might think. Each raises its own particular set of challenges and concerns.

Bretton Woods Institutions

2008 ◽  
pp. 232-253
Author(s):  
Ngaire Woods
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Bretton Woods ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
Bretton Woods Institutions ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

This article discusses the Bretton Woods Institutions, which are often described as the ‘sister institutions’ of the United Nations. It explains how the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) generated heated debate and criticism, most especially over the past twenty years. It shows what the institutions do and determines why they have become controversial. The article also identifies the two key factors that limit the effectiveness of the institutions.

Repercussions of the economic reform policies on the urban poor in Egypt

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali El-Din Abd El-Badee Al-Qosbi
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Economic Reform ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
International Market ◽  
Urban Society ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
Consistent Problem

As a result of empirical data gathered through sociological surveys, the author argues persuasively that Egyptian economic reform policies – largely based on structural readjustment and rehabilitation programmes devised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank – have adversely affected the most seriously impoverished sectors of Egyptian urban society. The paper examines the correlation between theoretical suppositions of predicted adverse effect on this sector and actual repercussions as evidenced in such indicators as healthcare, sanitation, employment and access to education. While poverty has been a consistent problem and while these policies – which were undertaken in the context of increasing integration into the international market – cannot be blamed for its original occurrence, there is persuasive evidence that they have caused measurable harm, compounded existing inequities and increased the marginalization of Egypt's urban poor who appear to have been among the most adversely affected in the population as a result of the various initiatives.

Jubilee 2000

1994 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 699-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Peters
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
Intellectual Climate

With five years to go until 2000 is upon us the debt campaign is at present concentrating on two elements important for success. The first is capturing and extending what might be described as grass-roots interest: signs already have appeared of some sympathy with, and even support for, the campaign among economists, bankers, civil servants, diplomats, and politicians; discreet encouragement from the inner courts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank has been recorded. The second is a change in the international, political, and intellectual climate to favour remission.

Poverty, Human Rights and the Quest for Sustainable Human Development in Structurally-Adjusted Uganda

2000 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-44
Author(s):  
J. Oloka-Onyango
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Political System ◽  
Economic Adjustment ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Sustainable Human Development ◽  
The World ◽  
Resistance Movement ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

In a bid to address the almost two decades of economic malaise and decline that Uganda had experienced in the 1970s and 1980s, Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Movement adopted radical measures of economic adjustment under the tutelage of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Although those measures resulted in significant economic growth – in GDP terms – this article argues that they failed to be conscious of basic principles of human rights relating to equality, non-discrimination and participation, and have consequently compounded the situation of poverty in the country. It further argues that the ‘non-party’ political system in existence further undermines the promotion and protection of fundamental human rights.

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