The post-Washington consensus

2021 ◽  
pp. 113-120
Author(s):  
Elisa Van Waeyenberge
Keyword(s):  
Washington Consensus

The Pandemic Exposes an Ailing US Governance Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 119 (820) ◽  
pp. 310-316
Author(s):  
Alasdair Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Washington Consensus ◽  
The Past ◽  
Governance Model ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Current Governance

Since the 1990s and Bill Clinton’s embrace of key parts of Ronald Reagan’s legacy, mainstream US governance has been guided by a bipartisan consensus around a formula of shrinking the federal government’s responsibilities and deregulating the economy. Hailed as the ultimate solution to the age-old problem of governing well, the formula was exported to the developing world as the Washington Consensus. Yet growing political polarization weakened the consensus, and in a series of three major crises over the past two decades—9/11, the global financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic—US policymakers opted for pragmatism rather than adherence to the old formula, which appears increasingly inadequate to cope with current governance challenges.

Corporate (Non-)Accountability and Human Rights

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 503-523
Author(s):  
Stéfanie Khoury
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Washington Consensus ◽  
Corporate Accountability ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Race To The Bottom ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Binding Mechanisms

Abstract The role of business in violations of human rights has been at the heart of international debates for decades. As early as the 1970s attempts were made at the UN by Global South nations (known as the G-77) to establish internationally-binding mechanisms to address corporate violations of human rights. Ultimately, those attempts were watered down into “codes of conduct”. In the early 1990s, the “Washington Consensus” was used to steer states to deregulate and restructure their economies in a race-to-the-bottom that placed emphasis upon integrating the global economy over human rights and environmental protections. Although corporate violations existed before, it was only at this juncture that many human rights cases were brought into public view. Some litigation was pursued, but it was most often in tort, and sometimes in criminal courts. This article argues that the existing regional human rights courts have bolstered corporate human rights, while at the same time have remained on the sidelines of addressing corporate accountability. The emergent ASEAN human rights system has not yet developed a human rights court. The article suggests that there are key grassroots movements shaping human rights discourses around corporate accountability through the region and that these offer exciting prospects for an alternative approach to addressing corporate accountability through a prospective supervisory mechanism.

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