Abstract / Description of output
Good governance reforms aim at transforming African state bureaucracies into efficient, transparent, and accountable institutions. These policies are inserted into the national administrative apparatus by means of conditions attached to the financial support of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Although the conditions exactly match the priorities of these international financial institutions (IFIs), they are not set by them; paradoxically they are (in theory) set by the government requesting a loan. This paradox, the article argues, has to be understood primarily in legal terms. A close reading of a number of loan documents signed by the representatives of the IFIs and the government of Malawi demonstrates how responsibility for good governance reforms is ascribed to the government of Malawi, which “owns” the reforms. The article further shows that the elaborate conditionality attached to loans fuses legal logic and economics in a characteristic “normativity of numbers.” By normativity of numbers I refer to the use of economic data, and the introduction of systems of personnel management and expenditure monitoring, as conditions in the loan documents.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 187-202 |
Journal | PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review |
Volume | 31 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2008 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- international financial institutions
- good governance
- conditionality
- numbers
- Poverty Reduction Strategies
- Africa
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'The Normativity of Numbers: World Bank and IMF Conditionality'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Press/Media
-
African anti-corruption agencies and the problem of independence
26/11/19
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Research
-
Gerhard Anders and Matthew T. Page comment on anti-corruption efforts
Gerhard Anders & Matthew Page
18/09/19
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
-
Fighting high-level corruption in Africa: Learning from effective law enforcement
Gerhard Anders & Fortunata Songora Makene
16/09/19
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Project or Organisational News Item