The World Bank and the post-Washington Consensus in Vietnam and Indonesia

This thesis undertakes a detailed examination of the development theory and practice of the World Bank and, in particular, its shift from the Washington Consensus to the so-called post-Washington Consensus. It does this utilising a Gramscian framework, which means that the Bank is situated as constituent part of the larger hegemonic project of the post-World War Two era. Thus, the first part of the thesis explores the origins, history and development theory of the Bank in the context of the prevailing ideas and political power. While the Bank\u27s move away from the Washington Consensus from the early to mid-1990s has been explored by a number of academics, this thesis is the first attempt to systematically outline the contents of the post-Washington Consensus development model. These contents are utilised in the second part of the thesis to structure a detailed analysis of the Bank\u27s lending practices in two countries, Vietnam and Indonesia. The case studies enable the development of some empirically-based conclusions regarding the extent to which the rhetoric of the post-Washington Consensus has been incorporated into the Bank\u27s lending practices. They also facilitate some tentative conclusions about the role of the post-Washington Consensus and its relationship to US hegemony