‘Development’ and Global Governance: The World Bank, Financial Sector Reform and the ‘Will To Govern’

Despite the proliferation of literature on ‘global governance’, relatively little attention has been paid to the role of ‘development’ agencies in the construction of regimes of global governance. This article presents an empirical study centred on the role of the World Bank in financial sector governance. The evolution of World Bank policies and practices in this area demonstrates how the World Bank has become an important instrument in the construction of regimes of global governance. This article concludes with some reflections on what this case suggests about how we should explain the emergence of regimes of global governance, and what the World Bank's financial sector reform activities mean for the relationship between development and global governance.