ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the most recent critical juncture in the World Bank’s development as a global managerialist institution. From the mid-1990s the Bank has abandoned the rhetoric (if not, as will be seen, the policy reality) of structural adjustment, in favour of an approach emphasising comprehensive development and a focus on poverty reduction. Once again, interpretations of what has been happening at the Bank differ. Many critics argue that the changes in the Bank’s practices do not alter the fundamental “neo-liberal” orientation of the organisation. This argument is based mainly on the Bank’s continuing emphasis on “fiscal prudence”. From a global managerialist perspective, I argue that a focus only on the economic content of the Bank’s activities overlooks a substantial change in the Bank’s orientation. Where the Bank had previously sought to influence economic policies, now it aimed its sights also at social policies, through a focus on what it calls “poverty reduction”. As part of this new policy orientation, the organisation adopted the Millennium Development Goals, a trans-institutional initiative to improve the quality of life in a wide range of indicators ranging from health, education and gender equity to environment and governance. Far from representing merely a sprinkling of angel dust on the heavy pudding of structural adjustment, the “poverty turn” reflects a more intrusive managerialist orientation than structural adjustment.
