Advancing governance in the south: what roles for international financial institutions in developing states?

The current backlash in Latin America against neoliberalism and its main conveyors present the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) with an inexorable dilemma to their financial and ideological authority. The book attempts to understand the implications of the current changes in Latin American political economy for the (power) relationships between the IFIs and the local actors. It does so by exploring the risks associated with the narrow approach and practices of the IFIs in their promotion of political and economic governance in developing countries. The book argues that ‘good’ governance can be an area of contestation at the same time that can become an area of political engagement between local actors and the IFIs. As such it is expected that the ways IFIs staff interact with the local actors will affect the likelihood of policy change. Drawing on the lessons from the power relations involving the IFIs and the local actors in the promotion of governance reforms in Argentina since the 1990s, the book extends the analysis to the current challenges and dilemmas for the IFIs in face of the most recent redefinition of political and economic governance at the regional scale. Four guiding questions are covered in this book: to what extent the IFIs can affect models of the state and development? Can ‘good governance’ be imposed from outside? Who is governance good for? To what extent have the current political and economic trends in Latin America actually transformed power relationships between donors and recipient countries? In answering these questions, the book explores what ‘power’ currently means in the relationship between the IFIs and local actors in developing countries and the analytical implications for broader analysis of the complexities and tensions between sovereign authority, domestic policy processes and externally-driven demand