The following is an excerpt from a 1992 report by a non-governmental organization assessing economic changes in West Africa:
"Under the pressure of international financial institutions, the government has slashed spending on education and healthcare, privatized state-owned enterprises, and lifted price controls on staple foods. While these measures were intended to reduce public debt and integrate the national economy into global markets, they have disproportionately impacted the rural poor and triggered widespread protests against rising living costs."
Based on the passage, the economic policies described most directly reflect the influence of which of the following global trends in the late twentieth century?
- AThe expansion of direct colonial administration and territorial annexation by European empires
- BThe revival of mercantilist trade strategies to accumulate bullion through state-enforced monopolies
- The promotion of free-market policies and deregulation by international financial organizationsCevap
- DThe complete homogenization of regional economies, which eliminated all local market structures
Cevap
The promotion of free-market policies and deregulation by international financial organizations
The economic policies described in the passage—specifically privatization, deregulation, cutting public spending, and lifting price controls—are hallmarks of free-market economic liberalization, often referred to as neoliberalism. In the late twentieth century, international financial organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pressured developing nations to adopt these structural adjustment programs as conditions for receiving loans.
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Anahtar Kavram
Neoliberalism and the spread of free-market policies under global financial institutions in the late twentieth century.
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