Delusions of development: the World Bank and the post-Washington Consensus in Southeast Asia

In many countries mutual guarantee schemes and institutions help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to improve their access to credit, by reducing existing information asymmetries and improving credit conditions for those who benefit from such guarantees. In European economies, mostly characterised by small firms, mutual guarantee institutions play a very significant role in sustaining national economies. This book analyzes the functioning of guarantee systems for SMEs in countries where these schemes play an important part. Furthermore, it investigates the expected evolutions of the guarantees offered by the mutual guarantee institutions in the framework of Basel II, since only under certain conditions are the guarantees eligible under the New Basel Capital Accord. The cross-country comparison emphasizes the regulatory and institutional framework, the structure, dimension and operational features, the performance and the policy makers' role. Delusions of Development looks at the World Bank's promotion of market-led development in the underdeveloped world and its impact upon citizenship. Using case studies from Southeast Asia, the author details the way in which the Bank, frustrated by earlier efforts, has established a new approach to development that seeks to constitute market society. However, rather than expanding the representation of the poor, the Bank's mission is actually designed to constrain politics in the interests of implementing a new institutional market order. The mission, therefore, is subjected to political forces which continue to render the neoliberal project of establishing an idealised notion of market society an impossible mission. Summary reprinted by permission of Palgrave Macmillan