The World Bank and Policy Reform in Mexico and Argentina

Abstract

This article examines the World Bank's role in the market policy reform experiences of Mexico and Argentina. It argues that while reform was driven by domestic elites, the bank played an important role, providing technical advice and financial support and helping to spread market reform ideas. The nature of the bank's involvement, however, differed substantially in the two countries because of their distinct political arrangements, histories, and geopolitical positions in regard to the United States. In the recent era of second‐generation reforms, the World Bank's involvement in compensatory policy development has become more focused, although still more intense in Argentina than in Mexico. This involvement has important implications for the quality of democracy, insofar as the 1990s market reforms were formulated by insulated international policy networks unaccountable to the public. Recently, the bank has declared its commitment to involve civil society in its lending policies, a move that may have important implications for democratic development.

Economists, Capitalists, and the Making of Globalization: North American Free Trade in Comparative-Historical Perspective

“…In studies of this kind, economists exert influence because they are holders of high-ranking posts in the state hierarchy-"technocrats" or "technopols" ðCenteno and Maxfield 1992 ;Centeno 1993;Domínguez 1997;Centeno and Silva 1998;Schneider 1998;Babb 2001;Teichman 2004;Chwieroth 2007Þ. These are state actors whose biographies-that is, their previous academic training in economics-makes them more intrinsically ðintellectuallyÞ committed to free market and proglobalization policies than other potential holders of the same posts.…”

Governance Ecosystems

“…As Peck and Tickell (2002) and many others have pointed out, the discourses influencing policy decisions during the roll-out phase of neoliberalism emerged from a specific locus of neoclassical economic thought originating from the Chicago School of Economics, and eventually becoming imbedded in Washington-based Bretton Woods Institutions such as the World Bank (Veltmeyer et al, 1997). Neoliberal policymaking in this era reinforced and reproduced the central tenets of what came to be known as the Washington Consensus through a process of selection, retention, reinforcement, and recruitment -the latter, largely in the form of technocrats educated in neoclassical economics who cycled through key policy-making positions in a variety of institutions (see Teichman, 2004, for a discussion on the 'epistemic communities' of technocrats and policy-makers influencing policy reform in Mexico and Argentina during the 1980s and 1990s).…”

Democracy at Work: Moving Beyond Elections to Improve Well-Being

“…Rather than expand social welfare through universalist principles, new democracies have focused on inclusion through targeted programs, aiming for greater efficiency and effectiveness (Teichman 2004). Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs best exemplify this approach.…”