Self-Reinforcing and Reactive Path Dependency: Tracing the IMF’s Path of Policy Change

This chapter addresses the puzzle of change in the IMF’s activities by examining the path-dependent processes that led the organization to take responsibility for poverty reduction and surveillance of the financial sector. In doing so, the chapter contends that the outcome of path-dependent processes is related to endogenous, IO-specific cult characteristics. In the case of poverty reduction, the sequence of policy changes cumulated into a situation of conflict with the Fund’s legal mandate and dominant expertise, triggering a process that pushed the organization off its original track. In contrast, in the case of financial sector surveillance, the sequence of policy changes adopted over time has largely been aligned with the prevailing bureaucratic culture reinforcing pre-existing surveillance practices