The McNamara Bank and Its Legacy, 1968-1987

By almost any standards other than those of Robert McNamara, the World Bank was already a successful organization when this former Secretary of Defense and quondam CEO of the Ford Motor Co. became its 5th president. During the 1946-1968 period there emerged in The Bank 3 distinct cultural strands: 1. One was dominated by a sense of social mission, a powerful ideological commitment to improving the world through public-sector economic programs. 2. One was the banking culture framed in terms of prudent fiscal behavior. 3. One embraced a technical approach to problem-solving and project-design in all of the works supported by The Bank. Under McNamara's leadership, The Bank developed a cultural consensus that made it difficult for the organization to read certain kinds of danger signals. Under less forceful leadership after 1981, The Bank steamed along on the course McNamara had charted - while the tensions between the institution and important elements in its environment steadily increased.