A01=Sarah Babb
american
Author_Sarah Babb
Category=KCM
Category=KFFK
congress
congressional
congressmen
economic growth
economics
economy
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
governing
government
legislative branch
mdb
multilateral development banks
policy
political
politics
poor
poverty
senate
senators
shareholders
society
sociological
sociology
united states of america
usa
washington dc
world bank
Product details
- ISBN 9780226033655
- Weight: 539g
- Dimensions: 17 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 15 Jun 2009
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) carry out their mission to alleviate poverty and promote economic growth based on the advice of professional economists. But as Sarah Babb argues in "Behind the Development Banks", these organizations have also been indelibly shaped by Washington politics - particularly by the legislative branch and its power of the purse. Tracing American influence on MDBs over three decades, this volume assesses increased congressional activism and the perpetual 'selling' of banks to Congress by the executive branch. Babb contends that congressional reluctance to fund the MDBs has enhanced the influence of the United States on them by making credible America's threat to abandon the banks if its policy preferences are not followed. At a time when the United States' role in world affairs is being closely scrutinized, "Behind the Development Banks" will be necessary reading for anyone interested in how American politics helps determine the fate of developing countries.
Sarah Babb is associate professor of sociology at Boston College. She is the author of Managing Mexico: Economists from Nationalism to Neoliberalism and coauthor of Economy/Society: Markets, Meanings, and Social Structure.
