IMF Reform

The global financial crisis moved the International Monetary Fund (IMF) back to the center
stage, after some years of disengagement by major emerging markets and developing
countries (EMDCs). Neo-liberal institutionalism predicts that crises in a highly
interdependent world induce states to strengthen multilateral institutions. In the case of the
IMF, many observers believed that a more effective IMF was contingent on giving EMDCs a
larger voice. However, the 2010 Quota and Governance Reform at the IMF fell below
expectations in this regard. Based on an analysis of the ex ante preferences and power
relations of the major players, we show that this should not come as a surprise and that the
2010 reform agreement has reached the boundaries of the politically possible. Hence, this
empirical case-study brings in power and preferences to qualify the more optimist neo-liberal
institutionalist accounts against the backdrop of an increasingly multipolar world.

This paper explores how philosophical inquiry and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) can mutually benefit from each other to produce new methodological and reflexive directions in neo-liberal policy research to examine the phenomenon of ‘What is (going on here)’. Through this we argue that augmenting linguistic analysis with philosophical perspectives develops and supports CDA scholarship more broadly by accommodating the shifting complexity of social problems of ideologically driven inequality that are inbuilt through, in our case, social policy texts. In discussing philosophical-methodological issues, the paper argues for the need to continually adapt CDA to the particular data so as to remain sensitive to and avoid hegemonic tendencies in analysis. Through adopting the principles of a working methodology, we discuss a micro-meso-macro CDA framework that draws on the analytical concepts of movement, metaphorical superfluidity, thematic condensation, and surrealism to conceive of a research approach capable of examining and comprehending evolving discourses of political economies. The most immediate benefit of this framework is its capacity to illustrate how forms of valuations perpetuated by and through policy discourse are the motivational locus of meaning making insofar as they strongly inform the moral underpinning the ideology of economic growth.

This paper examines the way the metaphor of diversity provides a moral basis for inequality in Singapore’s meritocratic education system. Based upon a collection of policy texts from 2002 to 2012, our analysis illustrates that the metaphor of diversity in policy texts provides ways for systemic discrimination within the education system and that this inequality is given legitimacy as necessary through various moral discourses. The paper employs a critical discourse analysis that draws upon the relationship between language analysis, the philosophical study of valuation, and political economy as a composite formulation of values to highlight the ways in which an argument for inequality permeates policy from within a frame of meritocracy, and to analyse how changes associated with new modes of value determination serve to legitimize inequality.

1. The article questions and challenges the official meritocratic principle of ‘equal opportunities’ (Wong, 2000) in Singapore's education system. Drawing on Foucault's and Nietzsche's philosophical perspectives, there is an explicit illustration through an in-depth analysis of how inequality is inbuilt in policy report/speech.

2. Discourse builds in/tangible structures in society and greatly determines the possibilities of the now. As such, I am also arguing that it would be more difficult to 'help' any 'community' if the structural discrimination which has been deeply embedded, is not made explicit through national policies, and by this I mean an explicit illustration through an in-depth policy analysis of how inequality is inbuilt in Singapore's education policies. It may be through this that discriminatory structures could be substantially challenged.

An initial analysis of the original 1979 policy on primary school streaming which I conducted illustrates how dichotomous (arbitrary) categorization of pupils, i.e. 'slow' and 'fast' learners legitimates and sustains increasing institutional/structural access (over the years terms like 'talents' have been employed in policy discourse), of who gets privileged knowledge access. Through this, I also ask then to what ends do forms of 'categorization' or conventional designation entail? By this, given that categorization legitimizes structural access, my question is, what is 'Malay/Muslim community' and how is this categorization necessary?

3. Even though the analysis in the article was based on Singapore's education system, it provides possible ways of understanding how inequality is continuously being inbuilt through policies on the basis of the ideology that economic growth is the (only) way forward. A way to critique this ideology is to expose its underlying assumptions. I believe the findings have much resonance with the widening inequality across many developed nations, as Singapore's policies have parallels with that of the U.K., U.S., and international organizations such as the World Bank.

4. Economically considered, the transliteration of meritocratic discourse into the metaphor of diversity pinpoints how the appeal of development for all necessarily also demands the advance of inequity for the sake of the whole, i.e. advancing the 'growth with inequity' principle.

5. The analysis highlights that value judgments are continually at work in the policy discourse and that despite the strong discourse of meritocracy that the Singapore education system promotes, it is argued that it is in the interests of the Singapore people that 'talents' should get privileged access to knowledge as it is through this that more 'opportunities' for the rest of the population are created. The findings demonstrate that although the underlying assumptions of this 'logic' that has been constructed in policies are unsubstantiated, the logic is continuously legitimated through forms of e/valuations.



This article has been featured in websites such as: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150428105815.htm
http://www.eurasiareview.com/28042015-what-is-value-of-inequality-within-singapores-education-system/

El trabajo analiza las condiciones legales y de procedimiento en base a las cuales, en junio de 2018, la República Argentina contrajo con el Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI) un crédito stand-by por la suma de $50.000.000.000, ampliado posteriormente por U$S 7.100.000.000.  También explica las acciones desarrolladas en términos de litigio estratégico para obtener información pública sobre el tema y sostiene, tal como se encuentra pedido judicialmente, que el crédito y su ampliación es nulo de nulidad manifiesta y absoluta. 

Esta nulidad deriva no solo por el hecho de que el crédito fue tomado por el Poder Ejecutivo sin intervención del Congreso, sino por haberse violado de manera manifiesta diversas leyes nacionales. En especial, requisitos esenciales establecidos por la Ley de Administración Financiera N° 24.156 (LAF) y la Ley Nacional de Procedimiento Administrativo N° 19.549 (LNPA).

This paper provides a discussion on Egypt’s political economy since the Free Officers Revolution in 1952. It highlights the key phases of its transformation and provides an analysis on how the military regimes in Egypt monopolised power across the Egyptian economy for political gain. The paper postulates that Egypt’s current regime under al-Sisi, similar to his predecessors, implemented economic reforms characterised by what this paper refers to as ‘authoritarian liberalism’. The discussion starts with the period of Gamal Abd al-Nasser and illustrates the fundamental steps he took to steer Egypt’s economy towards a modern but socialist-oriented economy. It then goes on to discuss how his successor Anwar Sadat reversed Nasser’s economic policies and liberalised Egypt’s economy. Next, an in-depth analysis will follow on Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade-old regime before it was overthrown by a popular uprising in 2011. Furthermore, the paper outlines the brief period of democracy and civilian rule in Egypt under Muhammed Morsi. It explains why and how this period failed to deliver a permanent success. Finally, the focus is on key aspects of the regime put in place by new ruler Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. It demonstrates that the shape of the Egyptian economy under the new regime led by al-Sisi is no better than at the time of Morsi. Economic and fiscal challenges, such as the high rate of unemployment, inflation, rising inequality and poverty, continue to be unresolved, and are expected to worsen in the post-Covid-19 era.