Multilateral Development Banks and the Challenge of Reform

Gutner, Tamar L. 2002. Banking on the Environment: Multilateral Development Banks and their Environmental Performance in Central and Eastern Europe. Cambridge, MA: MIT.

Clark, Dana, Jonathan Fox, and Kay Treakle, eds. 2003. Demanding Accountability: Civil-Society Claims and the World Bank Inspection Panel. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

In recent years, there has been a virtual explosion of literature in the field of political science concerned with the role and performance of multilateral development banks (MDBs). The main target of this scholarly interest has been the World Bank. The literature on the Bank is vast, and has—much like reform efforts within the Bank—appeared in waves. The earliest literature sought to demystify the institution, and highlighted its role within international politics. More recent waves addressed various aspects of Bank work, ranging from its poverty alleviation programs to its early efforts to take up "the environmental challenge." Current scholarship on MDBs is perhaps the most interesting, as it is more theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich. It moves beyond the sometimes static nature of international relations theorizing, and draws insights from policy literature, the literature on organizations, and transnational civil society. Two works reviewed here, Tamar L. Gutner's Banking on the Environment: Multilateral Development Banks and their Environmental Performance in Central and Eastern Europe and Demanding Accountability: Civil-Society Claims and the World Bank Inspection Panel, a volume edited by Dana Clark, Jonathan Fox, and Kay Treakle, represent the most empirically-grounded and theoretically creative of recent scholarship. What is especially refreshing about the two volumes reviewed here is that both examine the internal dynamics of MDBs, rather than leaving them as "black boxes."

Both works are united by several themes. First, both are concerned with the issue of institutional performance and make important contributions to our understanding of why MDBs function the way they do. Gutner frames her analysis in terms of the gap between MDBs' stated environmental goals and their realization, while Clark, Fox, and Treakle use accountability as their organizing principle. In particular they focus on how the World Bank's public appeals mechanism, the Inspection Panel, is leveraged by project-affected people in an effort to hold the institution accountable for its actions (p. xii). Second, both volumes break new empirical ground. Gutner's analyzes three MDBs' environmental behavior, rather than merely focusing on the World Bank, which is the most researched institution. Perhaps more importantly, she sheds light on the European Investment Bank, a little understood institution on which very little empirical research exists. In doing so, Gutner begins to fill an important gap in our knowledge of MDBs and offers a richer set of cases from which she draws. The Clark, Fox, and Treakle volume is comprised of chapters written mainly by civil society actors who participated directly in the Inspection Panel process, and analyzes nine claims. The case studies are developed from independent field research, access to World Bank documents and interviews with key informants. The volume represents one of the few in-depth analyses of claims brought before the Panel, and sheds light on the strengths and limits of civil society-driven efforts to promote institutional accountability between the Bank and those affected by projects it finances. Third, both engage recent literature on the interplay between transnational civil society and international institutions. Gutner's book draws on neorealist and neoliberal institutionalist approaches, as well as the literatures on policy-making and international institutions. Her contribution is in linking these literatures to explain the complexity of MDBs' environmental behavior. Gutner's findings support some existing theory, while arguing for the need to better integrate political and institutional variables. Moreover, she rightly points out the need to open up the "black box" of MDBs to understand how shareholder preferences influence the internal dynamics of the institution, as well as the mechanisms of reform. The Clark, Fox, and Treakle volume is decidedly less concerned with theory and is clearly aimed at a less specialized audience. Still, the introductory chapter and case studies engage the literature on transnational civil...