The rise of the developing world and the challenges toward the dominant paradigm of development: a review of the world development reports (1991–2020)
摘要
Stabilizing and expanding the development process in the post-World War II economic and socio-cultural context is influenced by two global geoeconomic and geopolitical momentums: (a) the last wave of globalization since 1980 and the expansion of capital in the Global South (geoeconomic momentum); and (b) the end of the Cold War in the 1990s and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc (geopolitical momentum). Many developing and southern countries entered the category of developed countries, and the World Bank—as one of the most influential policy-making organizations in global development—was forced to revise its dominant paradigm frameworks over the past three decades. The present study aims to determine the combined effect of the two events above on World Development Reports (WDRs) by analyzing the reports published between 1991 and 2020 through a kind of document analysis. The study seeks to answer how political, social, and economic events influence development policy within a global organization. The underlying assumption is that transitioning from market-oriented approaches to a more institution-based perspective, considering countries’ geographical and spatial conditions necessitates significant changes in current development policy. The study’s findings indicate that influenced by two above-mentioned momentums, the World Bank has moved away from its two previous positions, namely a smaller government and a free market economy as a driver of economic growth, and has acknowledged approaches including the significance of government and institutional policies, regulation in infrastructure, spatial and geographical criteria of development, and the possibility of capital-production activism of southern countries through the promotion of global value chains.