Geography of power: the making of global economic policy

This work looks at how contemporary global economic policies are made: by which institutions, under what ideologies, and how they are enforced. The author reveals the central roles played by organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank in supervising the livelihoods of over 2.5 billion people. He shows that neoliberal economic policy is enforced by a few thousand unelected and unaccountable experts in the North and has failed to deliver tolerable living conditions for the poor.The book argues for a new geographic theory of power, exercised through dominant institutions, concentrated in hegemonic power centers. It seeks to transform the existing geography of policy-making power by exposing its structures, centers and mechanisms, critiquing its intellectual foundations, uncovering its un-democratic justifications, and passionately supporting its opponents. The conclusion makes a further positive contribution by exploring policy alternatives that point the way forward. Concepts for a geography of power What are concepts? Policy regimes, ideology, hegemony, interpretation Discourse governmentality, institutional geography, geography of power global Governance power and policy Economic power Global finance capital fordism and capital money/power global risk management Foreign direct investment, from global risk to global angst Ideological power Policy as enlightenment, geography of academia, hierarchies of knowledge Economics as discipline, the discourse of Keynesian economics, the discourse of neoliberal economics, critique of neoliberalism economics as tragedy Political power The great U turn, the counter-establishment think tanks, freedom and democracy, government bureaucracy the Fed, government bureaucracy - the Treasury, the IFIs, Washington consensus, after the Washington consensus Washington consensus re-appriased, benevolent consensus, millennium hope and charity Sub-hegemony South Africa Discourse of resistance, discourse of development, disciplining the ANC Getting in gear sub-hegemony Counter-hegemony WSF alternative principles, UN agencies: UNCTAD, UNDP, development NGOs Counter-hegemonic praxis, the Bolivarian alternative Counter-expertise The three neos Neoimperialism, neo-conservatism, from neoconservatism to neoliberalism Neoliberalism and its discontents References. Examines how contemporary global economic policies are made: by which institutions, under what ideologies, and how they are enforced. This book shows that neoliberal economic policy is enforced by a few thousand unelected and unaccountable experts in the North and has failed to deliver tolerable living conditions for the poor. This text examines how contemporary global economic policies are made - by which institutions, under what ideologies, & how they are enforced. It shows that neoliberal economic policy is enforced by a few thousand unelected & unaccountable experts in the North & has failed to deliver tolerable living conditions for the poor.