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The Washington Consensus and Transition In Russia: History of a Failure
Author(s) -
Sapir Jacques
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
international social science journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.237
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1468-2451
pISSN - 0020-8701
DOI - 10.1111/1468-2451.00278
Subject(s) - washington consensus , neglect , macro , medical prescription , shock therapy , great depression , inflation (cosmology) , political economy , economics , political science , development economics , positive economics , economy , law , psychology , politics , medicine , physics , psychiatry , theoretical physics , computer science , pharmacology , programming language
This document examines the impact on the Russian economy between 1992 and 1998 of the macro‐economic prescriptions arising from the “Washington Consensus”. After recalling the origin of those prescriptions and showing that they never truly constituted a consensus, owing to the criticisms both internal and external to which they gave rise, the author shows that their application in Russia has resulted in new and scathing criticisms. The obsession with fighting inflation and the neglect of the micro‐economic and institutional bases of any realistic macro‐economy has led to an economic disaster. The demonetarisation of the Russian economy, and the extent and duration of the depression, are for the most part the result of the implementation of economic policies directly inspired and influenced by the “Washington Consensus”. The existence of internal theoretical inconsistencieswithin the standard macro‐economic philosophy also explains the inability to correct the prescriptions once their negative effects have been discovered.