E-Book Overview
This is a clear and concise introduction to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and an overview of its debates and controversies. Where did the IMF come from? What does it do? Why do so many governments participate in its programs and what are their effects? How can we best reform this key global institution? These are some of the key questions addressed. In our age of thinking global, the IMF is a crucial institution and central to understanding international relations and current affairs. Founded in the aftermath of the Second World War, its basic purposes were to facilitate world trade and promote national prosperity. The founders hoped that never again would the world experience the trade policies that led up to the Great Depression. This book outlines and questions these targets and assesses actual achievements. It also details how despite originally focusing on Europe, the Fund has gradually shifted to involvement with poorer developing countries, but to what ends and with how much success? This study both poses and tackles the tough questions facing our global community today.
E-Book Content
The International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is a powerful international institution. Founded in the aftermath of World War II, its basic purposes were to facilitate world trade and promote national prosperity. The founders hoped that never again would the world experience the trade policies that led up to the Great Depression. Soon after its inception, the IMF became involved with developing countries. Over the course of the past 50 years, this involvement has grown so that most developing countries have participated in its programs of economic reform. These “IMF programs” grant governments access to loans, but this access can be swiftly cut off if the governments fail to comply with specific policy conditions. IMF conditional lending impacts the lives of individuals in intimate ways. The policy conditions address government expenditures, so IMF programs help determine whether roads, schools, or debt repayment take priority. By addressing interest rates and currency valuation, IMF programs may even impact the very purchasing power of the money in people’s pockets. Unfortunately, in terms of economic development, there is scant evidence of the success of IMF conditional lending. • • •
Why do so many governments participate in IMF programs? Who controls the IMF? How should it be reformed?
By addressing the more demanding aspects of the institution, its debates and controversies in a clear and accessible fashion, this book will provide readers with a definitive introduction to link economic studies of the IMF with the political science literature. James Raymond Vreeland (Ph.D., New York University, 1999) is Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale University, USA.
Routledge Global Institutions Edited by Thomas G. Weiss The CUNY Graduate Center, New York, USA
and Rorden Wilkinson University of Manchester, UK
About the Series The Global Institutions Series is designed to provide readers with comprehensive, accessible, and informative guides to the history, structure, and activities of key international organizations. Every volume stands on its own as a thorough and insightful treatment of a particular topic, but the series as a whole contributes to a coherent and complementary portrait of the phenomenon of global institutions at the dawn of the millennium. Books are written by recognized experts, conform to a similar structure, and cover a range of themes and debates common to the series. These areas of shared concern include the general purpose and rationale for organizations, developments over time, membership, structure, decision-making procedures, and key functions. Moreover, the current debates are placed in an historical perspective alongside informed a