ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the governance of development financing in South America from an historical perspective. It focuses on the characteristic of development financing after the institutionalization of the Bretton Woods (BW) order. The chapter shows the intricate relationships between the South American states and the multilateral development agencies. It also analyses the new financing mechanisms grounded in the same principles as transformations in the global order and associated advance of post-neoliberalism in the region. The chapter also focuses on the ideas – and the variations in ideas – of development and governance. The number of changes experienced in the international scenario after the turn of the twenty-first century prompted the idea of a revolution in the governance of development financing in the region. The outbreak of the the First World War (WWI) changed radically that development financing logic. In 1914, at the outbreak of WWI, 'London held over two-thirds of Latin America's public debt.
