From Economic Crisis to Reform

From Economic Crisis to Reform provides a rigorous and nuanced analysis of the international and domestic politics of IMF lending programs. Through quantitative analysis and careful case-study comparisons of Latin America and Eastern Europe, Grigore Pop-Eleches takes us well beyond oversimplified linear arguments about the effects of economic crises. His cross-regional and cross-time research shows convincingly that changes in the international context, and variations in the components of different crises strongly condition both IMF lending priorities and the impact of partisanship and democracy. This outstanding book substantially advances our general understanding of the international and domestic politics of economic reform. -- Robert Kaufman, Rutgers University Straddling key issues of international and comparative political economy, and emphasizing partisanship, political competition, and bureaucratic capacity, this innovative book makes an essential contribution to understanding the politics of IMF-style economic reform in Latin America and Eastern Europe since the 1980s. -- Ruth Berins Collier, University of California, Berkeley This is a significant and substantively rich book. Pop-Eleches combines quantitative and qualitative evidence to show that IMF lending reflects the priorities of its leading members, but that those priorities differed substantially between the Latin American cases in the 1980s and the post-Communist cases in the 1990s. -- Randall W. Stone, University of Rochester From Economic Crisis to Reform constructs a theory on how the international and political environment affects IMF interventions in developing countries and tests this theory using a rich set of cases. This book provides an important contribution to the scholarship on the political economic of IMF interventions. -- Nathan Jensen, Washington University Well-written and well-organized, this book demonstrates a rare capacity to not only deal with two regions, but also with two very different methodological approaches. It will be required reading for scholars in the field. -- Miguel Centeno, Princeton University

Shows that economic crises do not necessarily persuade governments to adopt IMF-style economic policies. This book argues that ideology, interests, and institutions, at both the international and domestic levels, mediate responses to such crises.The wave of neoliberal economic reforms in the developing world since the 1980s has been regarded as the result of both severe economic crises and policy pressures from global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Using comparative evidence from the initiation and implementation of IMF programs in Latin America and Eastern Europe, From Economic Crisis to Reform shows that economic crises do not necessarily persuade governments to adopt IMF-style economic policies. Instead, ideology, interests, and institutions, at both the international and domestic levels, mediate responses to such crises. Grigore Pop-Eleches explains that the IMF's response to economic crises reflects the changing priorities of large IMF member countries. He argues that the IMF gives greater attention and favorable treatment to economic crises when they occur in economically or politically important countries. The book also shows how during the neoliberal consensus of the 1990s, economic crises triggered IMF-style reforms from governments across the ideological spectrum and how these reforms were broadly compatible with democratic politics. By contrast, during the Latin American debt crisis, the contentious politics of IMF programs reflected the ideological rivalries of the Cold War. Economic crises triggered ideologically divergent domestic policy responses and democracy was often at odds with economic adjustment. The author demonstrates that an economic crisis triggers neoliberal economic reforms only when the government and the IMF agree about the roots and severity of the crisis.