Structural Adjustment, Global Trade and the New Political Economy of Development

This book argues that the changes in the global economy are so profound that the world is now confronted with nothing less than a new political economy of development. The changes include: the continuing rise in the power of multinational corporations; the standardized policy package of structural adjustment now imposed by the World Bank and IMF; the coercive and much more far-reaching rules governing international trade in goods and services embodied in the World Trade Organization Agreements; the OECD’s impending Multilateral Agreement on Investment; the new international conventions on the environment; and globalization generally. The author provides an intellectually commanding survey of this new terrain. He subjects its economic and ideological assumptions to trenchant critique and shows how the rules of the game primarily reflect the interests of the rich and powerful countries of the North.