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The World Bank has been increasingly involved in reforming Latin America's education systems. However, compliance with World Bank directives varies greatly. Recent scholarship has made significant progress in fashioning an explanation for this variation by focusing on the presence of democracy. This article takes the literature a step further by identifying the mechanism by which democracy matters. Specifically, variations in executive authority are key factors in explaining the adoption of controversial World Bank directives. The authors argue that a government's ability to implement World Bank reforms and overcome popular dissent, if present, is a function of executive authority. They examine executive authority using several measures to test their hypotheses on a 20-year panel of 17 American states from 1980 to 2000. Results indicate that newly democratized governments and strong executives are indeed more successful in passing World Bank reforms. Keywords: World Bank; education; Latin America; democracy

The importance of multinational financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank has not diminished but their role has changed. They are better seen as partners to willing and responsible governments and governance reform is needed for them to be seen as honest brokers as they set the agenda for a range of international issues.

The article examines the macro and micro-economic factors that were responsible for the financial crisis during the1990s. It also reviews the effectiveness of the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision followed by IMF and the World Bank.

Having a new president, Robert B. Zoellick, gives World Bank a chance to revitalize its objectives, roles, and structure. It must establish its role in pushing economic growth in spite of climate change, reassert its part in global politics and redefine the organization's central mission. Suggested changes in the organizational structure are given.

Following recent debate on US influence on anti-racism around the world, this article offers a critical assessment of how anti-racism is being shaped and disseminated. It is argued that the [...]

The extent to which contemporary land reform debates are based on assumptions about legal centralism that implicitly insist that the label 'law' should be confined to state law, and that other normative orderings are, and should be, subordinate to the state, is examined. The analysis of the different legal paradigms give little evidence to suggest that legal and property relations evolve in a linear fashion from the customary to the formal.

The World Bank has become an expertised transnational institution and thus subject to the problems of expertise identified by social studies of science. The legitimacy and credibility of the Bank's [...]

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, frequently, and often repeatedly, extend loans to developing nations. These loans have been blamed for generating adverse economic outcomes. The growth impact of Fund and Bank loan programs is assessed using an empirical growth model that controls for other determinants of growth. A unique feature of this study is the use of the value of loans rather than the number of programs. The estimates indicate that Bank lending stimulates growth in some cases, primarily by increasing public investment. Fund lending is either neutral or detrimental to growth. The channel for this effect is a negative impact of Fund lending on public as well as private investment. Key words--development aid, empirical growth model, international lending, International Monetary Fund, World Bank

This paper urges implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreements through World Bank procedures because problems can be tackled locally rather than through World Trade Organization procedures which would require negotiations in trade related intellectual property rights, but notes that the World Bank has shown very little interest in these matters.

Byline: Thierry Ruf In the Ecuadorian Andes, irrigation depends mainly on private or community-based water management. In 1972, the State started taking over water administration by nationalising water and granting concessions to users' communities. In the beginning, the State did useful work by modernising the water rights system, but because of inter-community conflicts, local concessions were split up and community organisations became divisive. After thirty years of 'hydraulic bureaucracy', the World Bank introduced a new legal framework privatisation of water. Resistance has come from many stakeholders. Taking example of a very complex slope of the Andes in the Tungurahua province, we describe the problems of the local society of Santa Rosa: lack of background needed for water management and conflict resolution. Today, the water dispute has taken a new, curious turn the people are faced with a weak State, an ineffective market and poor common property links. An NGO will try to build a new system of governance.

The infrastructure project that is led by Kazakhstan's water resources management agency and the World Bank are restoring the shrinking northern sea, which is a smaller part of Aral Sea. The strategies employed for restoring the shrinking sea are discussed.