In the fall of 1989, the British economist John Williamson prepared a background paper for an upcoming conference at the Peterson Institute of International Economics in Washington, the aim of which was to examine recent shifts in economic policies and attitudes in Latin America. By his own account, his aim with the paper was to identify a list of 10 policies “about whose proper deployment Washington can muster a reasonable degree of consensus.”
Little did he know at the time that his so-called Washington Consensus would come to take on a life of its own. Thirty years later, it remains one of the most controversial ideas in debates about global development, economic policy, and particularly the role that international financial institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have played across the Global South.
In this week’s interview on Trend Lines, WPR’s Elliot Waldman is joined by Daniel McDowell, an associate professor of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, for a conversation about the history of the Washington Consensus and why it continues to spark controversy around the world.
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Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.
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