1. A Bittersweet "Graduation" from Aid: Can the World Bank's IDA Hold On to India, and Will India Let It?
- Author
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Kirk, Jason A.
- Subjects
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INTERNATIONAL financial institutions , *FINANCIAL aid , *INTERNATIONAL economic relations ,DEVELOPED countries - Abstract
In the literature on international financial institutions (IFIs), state-centered perspectives emphasize the role of wealthy countries in shaping the policies of institutions such as the World Bank. More recently, constructivist sociological approaches have argued that IFIs can be powerful actors in their own right, taking on missions that cannot be reduced to donor preferences. Neither approach has appreciated the "borrower power" that recipients of IFI assistance can possess. No other developing country has influenced the World Bank's thinking and practice as much as India has. Today, there is a saying about the Bank's relationship with its largest borrower that increasingly crops up in candid conversations with officials: "The World Bank needs India more than India needs the World Bank." This paper uses a theoretical synthesisâ??treating the Bank both as creature of state interest and as independent innovatorâ??to shed light on an important juncture. The Bank is determined to stay relevant in India, even as India is deliberately decreasing its aid dependency in line with its "emerging power" self-image and diplomacy. The Bank needs India both in a material senseâ??as a responsible borrower that allows the Bank to make higher-risk loans elsewhereâ??and as a symbolic success story of market reform and economic growth. Caught between increasing donor skepticism about India's needs and burgeoning aid demands from the lowest-income countries, India's impending "graduation" from the International Development Association (IDA, the Bank's concessionary aid facility) will radically alter the relationshipâ??unless creative ways are found to preserve India's eligibility. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009