 Paradigm and nexus: neoclassical economics and the growth imperative in the World Bank, 1948–2000Bentley B. Allan Review of International Political Economy, 2019, vol. 26, issue 1, 183-206 Abstract: The story of post-Second World War international political economy is often told as a series of paradigm shifts: from Keynesianism to neoliberalism to the post-Washington Consensus. This article argues that the paradigm story struggles to explain both continuity and change in postwar development policy in the World Bank. First, throughout the postwar era, the Bank remained oriented to neoclassical growth. Second, despite the continued focus on growth, the Bank agenda also changed in incremental ways that did not amount to a paradigm shift. This article builds on previous critiques of the paradigm concept to propose the concept of a ‘policy nexus’. I use this theoretical approach to argue that postwar Bank policy was structured by a series of nexuses constituted by shifting configurations of actors, knowledge, anchoring devices, institutional rules and political imperatives. I theorize the formation, reproduction and reconfiguration of nexuses by articulating the complementarities and tensions that stabilize and destabilize them. Date: 2019 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rripxx:v:26:y:2019:i:1:p:183-206 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2018.1543719 Access Statistics for this article Review of International Political Economy is currently edited by Gregory Chin, Juliet Johnson, Daniel Mügge, Kevin Gallagher, Ilene Grabel and Cornelia Woll More articles in Review of International Political Economy from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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