Turkey and the World Bank

By Alex Singleton | 6 October 2005

Critics of the World Bank charge that it "forces" countries to liberalize their economies, not allowing them to follow "their own paths" to development. I was in Turkey recently, and it's a country where there used to be some of that sentiment - a feeling that using the World Bank was akin to letting foreigners tell you what to do. But since 2001, when a new government came to power, there has been a more constructive relationship with the Bank, which is recognized as a beneficial development partner, bringing in both funds and overseas expertise.

Critics of the Bank overstate its power. Conditionality from the Bank has always been a weak instrument. Recipient countries are good, as Prof. Jagdish Bhagwati has pointed out, at just doing the conditions they want to.

Rather than seeing the World Bank as forcing countries to follow policies, we should recognize the reality that it works in partnership with recipient countries. We do not say that a high street bank manager forces a small business to operate in a certain way, but a bank manager won't give a business loan to a scheme that's nonsense. Similarly, we should not expect the World Bank to simply throw money away.