Structural Adjustment Programs - 1574 Words

Structural Adjustment Programs are programs used by the International Monetary fund as a tool to ensure the debt repayment of highly indebted developing countries, such as the countries in the Latin American area. Structural Adjustment Programs are routed in neo-liberal thought. Neo liberal thought is an economic approach whereby economic factors are shifted from the public arena to the private one, and whereby there is the freeing up of the economy by removing barriers and restrictions for what private actors can and cannot do (Oxford 2004). Structural Adjustment Programs (referred to as SAPs) allow the Global North, which includes North America and Western European countries to exploit highly indebted developing countries. Conditions required by Structural Adjustment Programs lead to an economically exploitative relationship between the Global North and in this case specifically Latin America. This paper will argue that in situations involving Structural Adjustment Programs, the Gl obal North can be viewed as the bourgeoisie and Latin America as the proletariat when looking through a Marxist lens. This paper will use the text of Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto in order to support the argument that the relationship between Global North and Latin America is similar in many aspects to the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat is an economically exploitative one, whereby by bourgeoisieShow MoreRelatedStructural Adjustment Program ( Saps )1902 Words   |  8 PagesStructural Adjustments The debt crisis in the 1980s gave Washington the opportunity to â€Å"blast open† and fully subordinate third World economies through World Bank-IMF structural adjustment programs (SAPs). Starting in 1980, developing countries were unable to pay back loans taken from Western commercial banks which had gone on a huge lending binge to Third World governments during the mid to late1970s when rising oil prices had filled up their coffers with petro-dollars. The World Bank and the IMFRead MoreImf Structural Adjustment Programs in Africa1070 Words   |  5 PagesIMF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMS IN AFRICA INTRODUCTION Beginning in 1980, the International monetary Fund (IMF) started to impose Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) on African debtor nations. SAP’s have been imposed on 36 African Sub-Saharan countries under the assumption that neo-liberal reforms lead to economic growth and an increased standard of living. For that reason, focus was put on macroeconomic policies with the open market based approach. SAP’s generally mandated: -the removalRead MoreStructural Adjustment Programs Have Led To The Increase1682 Words   |  7 Pages Structural adjustment programs have led to the increase in poverty by reinforcing the peripheral status of these countries within the capitalist system. The international system in characterized by the domination of peripheral countries by core, developed nations (Afriyie, 2009, 51). This system is being reinforced by structural adjustment policies that make these peripheral countries dependent and indebted to the core. The first policy that helps reinforce this system is currency devaluation.Read MoreStructural Adjustment Programs And Its Impact On Ghana s Human Development2653 Words   |  11 Pages(IMF), World Trade Organization (WTO), and the World Bank. These institutions applied neoliberal policies with the goal of pursuing progress for the global south. These Policies were referred to as structural adjustment programs (SAPS). This paper will argue that neoliberal structura l adjustment programs implemented by the IMF and the World Bank have brought a negative impact on Ghana’s human development hindering economic and social development. To prove my thesis, this paper will be assessing Ghana’sRead MoreThe Implementation Of Structural Adjustment Programs1169 Words   |  5 Pagesthat of health and education combined. In response to the mounting global debt crisis of the late 1970s, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) set forth a series of prescriptions for developing countries in the form of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) upon which the receipt of foreign aid is conditional. This paper seeks to analyze the effects of those prescriptions on the urban poor in three dimensions. First, through a look at the quality and accessibility of housing stockRead MoreThe Structural Adjustment Program Project1001 Words   |  5 PagesThe structural adjustment program project is one project of the World Bank that created substa ntial problems for the assisted nation, which in this case is Burundi. The structural adjustment program is a sort of lending program by the World Bank for countries whose economies are experiencing crisis. However, this lending program requires certain reforms and policies to be implemented by the receiving country in exchange for loans. In other words, the loans are strictly conditional, and these conditionalityRead MoreInfluence Of The Imfs Structural Adjustment Programs1398 Words   |  6 PagesThe purpose of this paper is to identify and verify the influence of the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programs in less developed countries to see whether the IMF truly is the culprit. I used the case of Jamaica to serve me as an example of a developing country that works closely with the International Monetary Funds. Social Development: Social development and economic growth are usually mistakenly used as synonyms. However, both terms are not the same. Though a country may enjoy economic growthRead MoreThe Modern Development Project ( Mdp )1037 Words   |  5 Pagesconnection demonstrated here between capitalist development and the continuity of inequality solidifies Sahlins’ argument that the evolution of culture and the proliferation of poverty are synonymous (1972: 36). The implementation of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) further supports the paradox of modern development, as the products counteract the aim of the strategy. SAPs entail loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund with the intention to accelerate economic growth in ‘lessRead MoreNorth American Free Trade ( Nafta ) And The International Monetary Fund1978 Words   |  8 Pagesmarkets in the â€Å"global† playing field through exploitation and it also looks like they are trying to eliminate all other players in the field so they can gain more monopolies and earn more money to fill their own pockets. In essence, these structural programs they parade around as a saving grace are just a faà §ade they hide behind in. In reality, their motives simply appear as another colonialist power play that they are implementing and it is not doing anybody favors at all. It continues to perpetuateRead MoreThe World Bank : Structural Or Sovereignty Adjustment Program162 9 Words   |  7 PagesHeather Reffle R. Jonasson Political Science 1020E 04/02/2015 The World Bank: Structural or Sovereignty Adjustment Program Since its opening loan of $250 million to France for post-war reconstruction in 1947, the World Bank has always declared its two primary goals as to â€Å"end extreme poverty within a generation and boost shared prosperity† (World Bank, 2014). The World Bank is first and foremost a bank - a business – whose primary interest is in making money, and in this profit-first business model