Beyond the World Bank Agenda

Despite massive investment of money and research aimed at ameliorating third-world poverty, the development strategies of the international financial institutions over the past few decades have been a profound failure. Under the tutelage of the World Bank, developing countries have experienced lower growth and rising inequality compared to previous periods. In Beyond the World Bank Agenda, Howard Stein argues that the controversial institution is plagued by a myopic, neoclassical mindset that wrongly focuses on individual rationality and downplays the social and political contexts that can either facilitate or impede development.
            Drawing on the examples of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and transitional European economies, this revolutionary volume proposes an alternative vision of institutional development with chapter-length applications to finance, state formation, and health care to provide a holistic, contextualized solution to the problems of developing nations. Beyond the World Bank Agenda will be essential reading for anyone concerned with forging a new strategy for sustainable development.   
    

“"This book is dynamite. It blows to pieces the World Bank and the bogus economics it sold to the poor countries of the world. Professor Stein's indictment of the World Bank pulls no punches, meticulously documenting the gross incompetence and dishonesty behind the World Bank's failure to reduce world poverty. Stein's mastery of economic theory is unmatched, as is his knowledge of world poverty, particularly in Africa. You must read his book."”

"A fascinating analysis of World Bank policies and lending, focusing primarily on the theory and practice of structural adjustment.... The historical aspects of the presentation are especially interesting, as are institutional details in the chapters on financial repression and health policy." (Choice) "Every year books about the World Bank are published. Few make an impact beyond the moment, if at all. This book does more than make an impact: it sets the standard." (John Weeks, University of London)"

Howard Stein is professor at the University of Michigan's Center for Afroamerican and African Studies. His most recent volume is Deregulation and the Banking Crisis in Nigeria: A Comparative Study.

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