Governing Failure

Jacqueline Best is an Associate Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. Her work focuses on the social, cultural and political underpinnings of the global economic system, which she studies by examining how organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank work to govern the global economy.

• Part I. Understanding How Global Governance Works: 1. Introduction; 2. A meso-level analysis; Part II. History: 3. What came before; 4. Transformations; Part III. New Governance Strategies: 5. Fostering ownership; 6. Developing global standards; 7. Managing risk and vulnerability; 8. Measuring results; Part IV. Conclusion: 9. The politics of failure and the future of provisional governance.

'Supremely over-confident in the 1980s and 1990s, international financial institutions have now recognized some of the limits of their capacity to effect change in an uncertain world. But, if structural adjustment has failed, what comes afterwards? In a brilliant analysis, Jacqueline Best shows us how the IFIs have invented a new form of 'provisional governance': failure is now anticipated, the authority of experts is known to be fragile, and government has become something of an experiment.' Andrew Barry, University College London