Stasis and change in the IMF and World Bank: International context and institutional dynamics

Despite changes in the international political economy, and pronounced dissatisfaction with their performance by developing states, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have maintained consistent missions and operations. Factors suggesting stability include broad First World support for the institutions, vigorous work by Fund and Bank staff to maintain their positions, and agreement by several newly industrializing countries with the prescriptions of the agencies. Factors working for modification have included macroeconomic shifts reducing the necessity for the agencies, increases in the number and power of less developed countries, and transformations in the nature of power among Third World states. Stasis forces have been stronger, especially because they directly influence the decision making within the Fund and Bank. Nonetheless, the recent financial crises in developing states, the prospect of similar ones in the near future, and the interdependence of First and Third World economies make the present an appropriate time for developing states to redouble efforts to force alterations in the organizations.