Owning Development
Creating Policy Norms in the IMF and the World Bank

This book examines the sources of change within the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Susan Park (Edited by), Antje Vetterlein (Edited by)

9781107407046, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 August 2012

306 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.45 kg

Review of the hardback: 'In this book Park and Vetterlein have assembled the next generation of academic leaders in international relations and political economy. They take the study of international organisation to a higher plane of insight by analysing the internally generated ideas and norms of the IMF and World Bank that drive global policy.' Diane Stone, University of Warwick, Central European University and University of Western Australia

As pillars of the post-1945 international economic system, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are central to global economic policy debates. This book examines policy change at the IMF and the World Bank, providing a constructivist account of how and why they take up ideas and translate them into policy, creating what we call 'policy norms'. The authors compare processes of policy emergence and change and, using archival and interview data, analyse nine policy areas including gender, debt relief, and tax and pension reform. Each chapter traces the policy norm process in order to shed light on the main sources and mechanisms for norm change within international organizations. Owning Development details the strength of these policy norms which emerge, then either stabilize or decline. The book establishes valuable insights into the strength of current development policies propounded by international organizations and the possibility for change.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Owning development: creating policy norms in the IMF and the World Bank Susan Park and Antje Vetterlein
Part II. Norm Emergence: 2. Internal or external norm champions: the IMF and multilateral debt relief Bessma Momani
3. From three to five: the World Bank's pension reform policy norm Veronika Wodsak and Martin Koch
4. The strategic social construction of the World Bank's gender and development policy norm Catherine Weaver
Part III. Norm Stabilization: 5. Lacking ownership: the IMF and its engagement with social development as a policy norm Antje Vetterlein
6. Stabilizing global monetary norms: the IMF and current account convertibility André Broome
7. Bitter pills to swallow: legitimacy gaps and social recognition of the IMF tax policy norm in East Asia Leonard Seabrooke
Part IV. Norm Subsiding: 8. The IMF and capital account liberalization: a case of failed norm institutionalization Ralf J. Leiteritz and Manuela Moschella
9. The World Bank's global safeguard policy norm? Susan Park
10. The new public management policy norm on the ground: a comparative analysis of the World Bank's experience in Chile and Argentina Martin Lardone
Part V. Conclusion: 11. Do policy norms reconstitute global development? Susan Park and Antje Vetterlein.

Subject Areas: Banking [KFFK], Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], Economic growth [KCG], International relations [JPS], Sociology [JHB]