The International Finance Corporation’s Transformation of Development in the Asia-Pacific: Working on, through and around the State

Abstract

Despite Development practice having seemingly stalled on the state-oriented neoliberal reform of the post-Washington consensus or PWC (see Carroll 2012a), in this chapter I propose that change and, indeed, significant expansion are actually evident within neoliberal Development policy, in particular within the work of private sector-oriented organisations such as the World Bank’s private sector arm, the Intemational Finance Corporation (IFC).¹ This evolution should be viewed in relation to various core dynamics operating under late capitalism (including neoliberalism’s impact) — dynamics that have changed the landscape upon which Development operates. In particular, the shifting poles of global growth and the contradictions attending neoliberal reform and late capitalism more broadly have provided the backdrop for the rapid growth in private sector support emanating from Development organisations, not to mention an accompanying increase in the number and form of Development modalities deployed.