Social capital as a third way
The World Bank is changing era. Its next annual World Development Report, which must be made public in September, encourages the governments of poor countries to supervise and support their peasantries, going against the neo-liberal doctrine of “structural adjustment” defended by the international donor for a generation. For the first time since 1982, this report, which guides the World Bank’s strategy, focuses on agriculture. Abandoned by policies to combat poverty, aid to the agricultural sector is once again becoming a major issue (Le Monde, 04/20/2007).
The World Bank is about to rehabilitate the role of the State, headlines the newspaper cited. An example of the miserabilism of journalistic information, especially when it comes from the pens of French authors. We cannot simply oppose “the market” to “the State”. Between the two, there is social capital. Raising its level leads to the development of organized civil society.
This can obviously only be weakly perceived in countries where historically the State has constantly destroyed the social bond to replace it with a state-legal bond.
And we cannot generally accuse the World Bank of neo-liberalism. The latter has for a long time already featured social capital prominently in its issues and programs.
|
