The World Bank and its upper-middle-income members: convening power and knowledge diffusion

• Ano de defesa: 2023
• Autor(a) principal: Schlindwein, Ingrid N. Aguiar
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Biblioteca Digitais de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Palavras-chave em Português: Banco Mundial; Brasil; Brazil; Global governance; Governança global; International organizations; Middle-income countries; Organizações internacionais; Países de renda média; Poder estrutural; Structural power; World Bank
• Link de acesso: https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/101/101131/tde-07082024-163923/

This thesis investigates the relationship between the World Bank and Upper Middle-income Countries (UMIC), as its largest recipients of funds. It postulates that, not only the UMICs are crucial for financing the Banks administration, but they also function as examples of best practices in the World Bank\'s strategies for developing countries. The World Bank is one of the main multilateral financial institutions along with the International Monetary Fund as one of the Bretton Woods institutions. It historically has used its material and ideological power as instruments for spreading a developmental agenda. UMICs projects are used as models by the Bank to be replicated in other developing countries, and they provide the institution with a coping mechanism to address the loss of institutional credibility and political legitimacy post Washington Consensus. This research analyses the role of UMICs in the World Bank strategies through an in-depth analysis of the case study of Brazils Bolsa Familia Program, in which the World Bank worked together with the Brazilian administration in the improvement of the design of the programme, which was later replicated it to other countries. The analysis is primarily qualitative and draws on both interviews and content analyses of the logical framework, indicators, and language in the World Banks reports. The main questions are: 1) Why does the World Bank focus most of its lending to Upper Middle-Income countries instead of giving preference to more dependent states? 2) What is the Bank trying to achieve through its lending to UMIC? 3) How does it intend to achieve this? 4) To whom is this relationship more important to the UMICs or to the World Bank?