New Rules of the Game: The World Bank's Role in the Construction of New Normative Frameworks for States, Markets and Social Exclusion

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the new social and political norms emerging as a result of the leadership which multilateral funding organizations and notably the World Bank have assumed in the process of institutional reform and the reconceptualization of the state. An analysis of the World Development Report 1997: The State in a Changing World, situates it in the context of the thinking preceding and following its publication. Next, the article examines the reasons why the World Bank has recently addressed the issue of social equity and the manner in which it has defined this nation, which will illustrate how this has led to the introduction of new norms, notably in the social sphere. Finally, it explores some of the social and political implications of the introduction of these new norms. The author argues that present trends entail a major shift not only in the locus of the production of new normative frameworks, but also an important redefinition of their content and the strategies which accompany them—trends which do not seem to have received the attention they deserve.