ABSTRACT
Since Robert Strange McNamara first introduced structural and sectoral adjustment lending in 1979–1980, nearly $50 billion has been devoted to it and the literature on its impact has grown exponentially. Libraries will soon need to make a separate catalogue heading for the phenomenon if they haven’t already done so. Much of the literature is polemical or at least challenges the opposing point of view. The defenders tend to be long on theoretical models and short on facts while the challengers may be prepared to attribute any and all unpleasant phenomena of the 1980s and 1990s to structural adjustment. Between the various official positions on structural adjustment and those of non-governmental organizations are the views of reputable scholars exemplifying various shades of orthodoxy, dubiety or dismay. By 1987 people at lower levels of the Bank who were genuinely committed to the country’s success had almost completed arrangements for a loan to promote the export of manufactured goods.
