Faith and Credit
The World Bank's Secular Empire

George, Susan; Sabelli, Fabrizio
Publisher:  Westview Press, Boulder
Year Published:  1994
Pages:  282pp   ISBN:  9780813326078
Library of Congress Number:  HG3881.5.W57G46 1994   Dewey:  332.1/532
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX15913

George and Sabelli examine the World Bank’s policies, its internal culture, and the interests it serves. They reveal a supranational, non-democratic, and extremely powerful institution that functions much like the medieval church or a monolithic political party, relying on rigid doctrine, hierarchy, and a rejection of dissenting ideas to perpetuate its influence. Its faith in orthodox economics, the idea of perpetual growth, and the capacity of the market to solve development problems is incompatible with its professed goals of helping the poor and protecting the environment. Faced with these contradictions, the Bank is increasingly struggling to reconcile the roles of commercial lender, policymaker, and great humanitarian.

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