Globalization, neo-liberalism, and the politics of the World Bank’s current urban agenda

Globalization and neo-liberalism have altered the nature and function of the state in both developing and developed countries. These twin pressures reinforced the World Bank’s conservative development philosophy in the 1990s. Three neo-liberal economic premises have undergirded Bank policy since the late 1980s (Bruno 1994: 2):

• Attainment of sustained average per capita growth is a necessary condition for sustained reduction in poverty.