Neoliberalism and Development Policy - Dogma or Progress?
Author(s)
Bayer, Kurt
Abstract
International Financial Institutions (IFIs) are the main institutional actors in development assistance and policy advice. They are also protagonists of (mainstream) development thinking. The lack of success of development assistance, characterised by the persistent large number of very poor in developing and emerging countries (DCs) is a result of both faulty content and lack of adequate representation of DCs in IFIs and other international fora. As a result of the latter, industrial countries’ thinking has dominated development practice. Variously, this latest version of mainstream thinking, the ‘Washington Consensus’ (WC) has been labelled neoliberal. Recently, this ‘consensus’ has begun to crumble and fray at the edges. It will only be successfully replaced by more effective development practice, if and when the influence of developing countries’ participation in the IFIs is increased in a way which leads to a more open market place for development ideas, permitting and promoting also non-conventional tailor-made solutions geared towards the poor and taking account of their specific needs and environments.
