The World Bank and Crimes of Globalization: A Case Study

Introduction THE BASIC ISSUE ADDRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE CAN BE CONCISELY STATED: ARE THE policies and practices of an international financial institution (the World Bank), arising in the context of an accelerated globalization, usefully characterized as a form of crime and a criminological phenomenon? What kinds of strategies and actions are available in response to the harm caused by these policies and practices? (1) International financial institutions such as the World Bank are key players in an increasingly globalized capitalist system. The claim that capitalism itself is a criminal enterprise is, of course, an enduring thesis of Marxist thought (e.g., Buchanan, 1983). (2) Moreover, some contemporary critics of globalization--as a transnational expansion of capitalist free markets--seem to suggest that per se is a criminal enterprise that ought to be challenged on every level. We do not propose to pursue such sweeping claims here. Rather, we address the narrower claim that at least some of the policies an d practices of the World Bank can be validly characterized as criminal. To support our case, we provide a case history of a World Bank-financed dam in Thailand. A Perspective on Globalization The policies and practices of international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and the International Monetary Fund can only be understood in the context of the notion of globalization. The invocation of that term has become ubiquitous and the literature on has expanded exponentially in the recent era, although its meaning is far from settled (Chase-Dunn et al., 2000; Dunne, 1999: 20; Hay and Marsh, 2000). (3) The term globalization has been in wide use since the 1960s (Busch, 2000: 22). In one sense, is hardly a new phenomenon, if one means by it the emergence of international trade and a transnational economic order. (4) Yet has become a buzzword of the transition into the era of the new century due to the widely perceived intensification of certain developments (Mazlish, 1999: 5). (5) It is not simply an economic phenomenon, although it is most readily thought of in such terms. (6) Globalization also has important politi cal and cultural dimensions (Chase-Dunn et al., 2000; Mazlish, 1999: 7). (7) The phenomenal growth in the importance and influence of transnational corporations, nongovernmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, international financial institutions, and special interest groups is a conspicuous dimension of contemporary (Mazlish, 1999; Shapiro and Brilmayer, 1999; Valaskakis, 1999). (8) Ordinary people lose control over their economic destiny (Greider, 1997). World markets increasingly overshadow national markets, barriers to trade are reduced, and instant tele- and cyber-transactions are becoming the norm (Blackett, 1998; Chase-Dunn et al., 2000; Jackson, 2000; Scheuerman, 1999). In the broadest possible terms, today refers to the dramatic compression of time and space across the globe. We accept here the view that as a phenomenon is endlessly complex, is characterized by various contradictory tendencies and ambiguities, and is best seen as a dynamic process as opposed to a static state of affairs (McCorquodale with Fairbrother, 1999: 733). (9) The contemporary discourse on is quite contentious, characterized by claims about the effects of that are often directly at odds with each other (Busch, 2000). On the one hand, certain aspects of globalization--such as increasing global communication and interaction--are surely inevitable. On the other hand, the mission and policy choices of international financial institutions, in relation to the globalized economy, are hardly preordained and are very much open to challenge. Some commentators argue that has basically increased living standards in much of the world, and that countries experiencing a rise in standards of living have done so by linking up with a globalized economy (Amsden, 2000; Ea sterlin, 2000; Zakaria, 1999). …