Superpowers enquiry question 2 Flashcards
(99 cards)
What are the Bretton Woods institutions?
IMF and WB
What is the IMF’s purpose - then and now?
- was to stabilise countries after ww2, preventing poverty and communism
- now money loaned out to help countries in debt, stabilising economies.
What does the IMF reflect?
The interest of America and Europe as the richest countries get the most voting power.
How can the IMF be harsh?
As it helps for superpowers to maintain power as they make nations dependent on them and therefore have the power to limit their development as the imposed conditions of borrowing money is decided by the wealthiest members.
How much voting power does the US have in IMF?
17%
What is the World Banks purpose?
To finance development as well as focusing natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies
How much voting power does the US have in the WB?
16%
How can powerful nations retain control in IGO’S
Due to some for of veto policy, therefore they can block policy and make sure that things are in their best interest.
What are the 6 steps to freedom that the WB and IMF SAP’S advocate for?
- reduced protection of domestic industries
- remove or decrease financial regulations
- minimum or no state control
- cut social spending
- removal of price controls
- raising interest rates to tackle inflation
What doe SAP stand for?
Structural Adjustment Programmes.
What does the OECD stand for
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
Name four important IGO’s in Global Economic Systems
IMF
World Bank
OECD
WTO
What does the WTO do?
The World Trade Organisation aims to ease trade and remove barriers to trade.
Pros of WTO
fairer system as one country uses one vote
Cons of WTO
voting has never occurred so undermines the pro
WTO is seen as a ‘rich man’s club’ biggest markets usually decide the outcome.
WTO and subsidies
removing/reducing farm subsidies makes trade fairer, however only rich can afford to subsidise their industries giving them an unfair advantage in market place.
What are subsidies
financial assistance to a business by the government to make it competitive and prevent potential collapse.
What is the negative of aid in international relations - GOOD EVALUATION POINT
aid always brings out influence, government given aid and monetary generally have a bad perception as it helps no-one
IMF IVORY COAST EXAMPLE
- IMF prevented Ivory Coast from receiving aid until 2013, only did so when government was transparent
- UN still bans diamond exports from the area due to them financing previous civil war.
negative of blue agreement on agriculture
ALLOWS SUBSIDISES TO BE GIVEN, SO LONG AS PRODUCTION IS REDUCED IN THE LONG TERM.
this allows farmers to go on producing large volume of goods at subsidised rates, eu and us then buy these and dump them on developing countries as a ‘form of aid’
Example of dumping aid (agriculture)
Tomatoes from Europe dumped on Ghanaians that already had large tomato production
Criticism of WTO
run by the rich for the rich
What is cultural imperialism
empires and particular groups taking over through cultural dominance and americanisation.
What are patterns of trade?
Who you trade with EU, China and US dominate world trade so therefore can exert influence. Developed countries have a greater share of global trade than developing countries as they mainly export valuable manufacture goods.