Death to the Washington Consensus??

While the benefits of economic growth are well known, the policies which cause growth are often upto debate. The Washington Consensus, a list of policies which were intended as prescription for growth to developing countries, were often summarized as 'stabilize, liberalize and privitize'. These prescriptions have shown to be ineffective, and the country narratives of India and China (not to mention the East Asian growth Miracle) have highlighted that countries have had successful growth records without following the Washington Consensus. (for an excellent criticism of WC, i suggest Moses Naim's seminal article "Washington Consensus... or Confusion" , its an article years back in Foriegn Affairs).

In this setting, the World Bank asked Micheal Spence to head the "Commission on Growth and Development". Over two years its compiled evidence from an impressive list of academics and policymakers from developing nations. Including in its message is that there is no single recipe, that governments have a wide variety of options to choose from, with an emphasis on active and pragmatic governments. The chapters contain not only country case studies, but also more theoretical discussions on development.

For the main report of the commission, see here

Here are various workshops, which each have links to the presented papers.

Im sure these topics will be widely discussed amongst the development policy community. I intend on making this my weekend reading!!