Hunger and malnutrition stalk the countries of the South. Over the last twenty years, as the populations of these countries have increased, so too has mass poverty on a grotesque scale. In this fiercely critical study of Western aid giving, Walden Bello offers a persuasive argument that recolonisation of the Third World has been carried out through the agencies of the International Banks.
Bello argues that neoliberalism or doctrinal free-market ideology came to power in the United States with an agenda to ‘discipline the Third World’ and the consequences of such a policy has resulted in lower barriers to imports, the removal of restrictions on foreign investments, privatisation of state owned activities, a reduction in social welfare spending, wage cuts and devaluation of local currencies.
Recipients of ‘structural adjustment’ loans from the West, have been forced to accept these polices, with disastrous consequences. Hailed as a classic study of global poverty, Dark Victory is now reissued with a substantial new epilogue by the author.
Table des matières
Foreword
New Introduction
1. The Great reversal
2. Challenge from the South
3. Liberalism and Containment
4. Reaganism and Rollback
5. Adjustment: The record
6. Adjustment: The Costs
7. Adjustment: The Outcome
8. Disciplining the NICs
9. Adjusting America
10. Dark Victory
11. The Battle for the 21st Century
12. Epilogue: Asian Economic Implosion
Notes and References
Appendix
Glossary
Selected Readings
Index
A propos de l’auteur
Walden Bello is an author, academic and political analyst. He is a professor of sociology and public administration at the University of the Philippines. He is the co-author of Dark Victory: The United States, Structural Adjustment and Global Poverty (Pluto, 1998).