The World’s Bank and the Bank’s World

Who or what shapes and drives the policy and operational behavior of the World Bank? The objective of this essay is to lay the conceptual and empirical framework for this special issue. I begin by constructing a synthetic theoretical model—drawing from principal-agent models and sociological institutionalism—to delineate the set of external and internal factors shaping Bank behavior. I then lay the empirical groundwork by exploring the most salient characteristics of the “world's Bank,” taking special note of the Bank's relationship with the United States, borrowing states, and nongovernmental organizations. In the second half, I focus on the “Bank's world,” investigating the internal bureaucratic politics and culture of the Bank. Specifically, I examine the sources and nature of the Bank's “intellectual culture” (characterized by its economistic, apolitical, and technical rationality), its “operational culture” (portrayed as driven by approval and disbursement imperatives), and the dynamics of b...