Faith And Credit: The World Bank's Secular Empire

by Susan George, Fabrizio Sabelli

In its fifty years of existence, the World Bank has influenced more lives in the Third World than any other institution, yet it remains largely unknown, even enigmatic. Although it claims to be a purely economic institution, the Bank wields enormous political power and has succeeded in making its own view of development appear to be the norm.In this richly illuminating and lively overview, Susan George and Fabrizio Sabelli examine the Bank's policies, its internal culture, and the interests it serves. They reveal a supranational, nondemocratic, and extremely powerful institution that functions much like the medieval church or a monolithic political party, relying on rigid doctrine, hierarchy, and a rejection of dissenting ideas to perpetuate its influence. Its faith in orthodox economics, the idea of perpetual growth, and the capacity of the market to solve development problems is incompatible with its professed goals of helping the poor and protecting the environment. Faced with these contradictions, the Bank is increasingly struggling to reconcile the roles of commercial lender, policymaker, and great humanitarian. This book is crucial reading for anyone interested in development and economy of the Third World, especially for international, political, and development economists.

282 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Susan George is a well-known political scientist and writer on global social justice, Third World poverty, underdevelopment and debt. She is a fellow and president of the board of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. She is a fierce critic of the present policies of the IMF, World Bank, and what she calls their "maldevelopment model". She similarly criticizes the structural reform policies of the Washington Consensus on Third World development. She is of U.S. birth but now resides in France, and has dual citizenship.

In January 2007 she received an honorary doctorate from Newcastle University in the UK and in early March the International Studies Association at its congress in Chicago presented her with its first award to an Outstanding Public Scholar.

Reviews

[A YOGAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dieses Buch "Kredit und Dogma. Ideologie und Macht der Weltbank" ist eine gnadenlose Offenlegung der Strategien von Weltbank und IWF. Es zeigt, wie dogmatische, neoliberale Programme unter dem moralisch glänzenden Etikett „Entwicklungshilfe“ Schuldenfallen für den Globalen Süden errichten – präzise konstruiert, politisch verpackt und ökonomisch verheerend.
Der Kaufpreis von 34 DM im Jahr 1995 wirkt rückblickend beinahe absurd: ein Spottpreis für ein Werk, das nichts weniger als die Gebrauchsanleitung zur globalen Ungleichheit liefert. Man könnte sagen, man erwarb für den Preis einer Pizza das nötige Wissen, um zu begreifen, warum genau diese Pizza anderswo unerschwinglich bleibt.
Ein Pflichtbuch für alle, die verstehen wollen, wie man mit Geld betet, Armut verwaltet und dabei trotzdem behauptet, Entwicklung zu fördern.