In the Loop: Multilevel Feedback and the Politics of Change at the World Bank and IMF

Liam Simon Clegg

doi:10.1057/jird.2009.28

In the Loop: Multilevel Feedback and the Politics of Change at the World Bank and IMF

Liam Simon Clegg

Politics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

How can we integrate the agential influence of state preferences and the structural influence of social environments in models of change within international organisations? Through an analysis of the central aspects of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) initiative, this article argues that in isolation neither of the two dominant accounts of international organisations — the principal-agent (PA) and constructivist approaches — is able to adequately capture the progression of the initiative. Rather, I show that the evolution of the PRSP initiative is best conceptualised as an Archerian morphogenic cycle, whose unfolding can be understood by synthesising elements of the PA and constructivist approaches. The morphogenic approach provides an analytic framework capable of tracking the process of multilevel feedback from state socialisation through to policy operationalisation, and for the input of creditors, the International Financial Institutions (IFIs), and borrowing countries to be mapped.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	59-84
Number of pages	26
Journal	Journal of International Relations and Development
Volume	13
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1057/jird.2009.28
Publication status	Published - 1 Mar 2010

Keywords

IMF
World Bank
principal-agent
constructivism
morphogenic

Access to Document

10.1057/jird.2009.28

Clegg_In the LoopFinal published version, 182 KB

http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jird/journal/v13/n1/abs/jird200928a.html

Cite this

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