IMF Part 3: Research Design

This is the final component of my 3 part assignment on the IMF.
You can read part 1 here
You can read part 2 here

The purpose of this research design is threefold.  First, it will review the extensive body of academic literature on the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including a brief provision of context based on my previous research.   The IMF's role in facilitating debt relief and economic reforms will be outlined, paying attention specifically to the role of the IMF in achieving its stated goals of assisting nations experiencing balance of payment problems.  The literature review will also examine the IMF's role in facilitating or interrupting domestic democratic processes, and related concepts of its democratic deficit and lack of transparency, and its role in culture and identity, sovereignty, and human security.  This will be situated within a context of globalization and the changing nature of the state. Further, this research design will develop a research question and hypothesis based on and situated within the current academic context. Finally, it will prepare a fieldwork component to a future research project in order to answer the questions raised by other scholars'
work.  By doing so, this paper will contribute to a growing body of literature on one of the most influential institutions of the globalized world, the IMF.




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IMF Part 1: Research Proposal

You can read part 2 here
You can read part 3 here

The purpose of this paper is to outline the initial details of a research project, focused on the neo-liberal policies outlined in Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine (2008) as Chicago School disaster capitalism, specifically as exemplified by occurrences in Latin America during the 1970s. Briefly, Klein posits that disaster capitalism, then during its infancy, saw a small group of powerful elites imposing unpopular economic reforms (namely deregulation, privatization, and government cutbacks) during times of crisis (such as armed conflict, political coups, or during violent oppression by military juntas) for the benefit of transnational corporations (TNCs). This issue has been chosen because of its close ties with globalization, outlined below, and the often devastating impact these policies have had on both national economies and cultures, as well as the heightening effect on the global North/South divide. This is important to explore both for the sake of those victimized by the policies of a few, but also to underline the need for global governance, finance, and other institutions to include rigorous democratic checks and balances on abuses of power, conditions which are at present glaringly absent.
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