Does the IMF need more political scientists?
A senior advisor to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy is complaining that the International Monetary Fund is slow-walking the long discussed $4.8 billion loan. Via the Financial Times: “The question [of when a deal would be signed] should be addressed to the IMF,” Mr Haddad told the Financial Times during a visit to London last week. ...
A senior advisor to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy is complaining that the International Monetary Fund is slow-walking the long discussed $4.8 billion loan. Via the Financial Times:
A senior advisor to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy is complaining that the International Monetary Fund is slow-walking the long discussed $4.8 billion loan. Via the Financial Times:
“The question [of when a deal would be signed] should be addressed to the IMF,” Mr Haddad told the Financial Times during a visit to London last week. “There’s always something coming up,” he said, complaining that fund officials wanted to see greater political consensus on the programme.
It’s not surprising that IMF officials are insisting on strong evidence of political consensus before agreeing to a loan. Egyptian political and religious leaders have been sharply divided over the wisdom of accepting IMF funds. What’s more, one lesson that the IMF staff derived from its recent review of Greece’s loan program was the importance of assessing whether a society can sustain the conditions a loan program includes. "The Greek program … provides further evidence that the success of a program hinges centrally on the depth of its ownership," that report concluded.
This renewed focus on the political sustainability of its loan programs raises a question: If the IMF is headed down this path, shouldn’t it be hiring political scientists as well as economists and lawyers?
More: It turns out that Seton Hall professor and IMF conditionality guru Martin Edwards has been beating this drum for a while. See pieces here and here:
The bigger challenge is one of orientation. The IMF is largely staffed by economists, which means that devising and communicating politically feasible policies can be a challenge. Managing Director Lagarde recognized this soon after taking office when she suggested that the Fund needs new thinking and outside expertise on how social and political trends affect macroeconomic stability. Whether this call for new thinking will translate into changes in staff recruitment is an open question.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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