The
euphemism used by
academics,
bureaucrats and
politicians when referring to the shared
perception of the
U.N., the
IMF, the
World Bank, and the
World Trade Organization (among others) that
neo-conservative free-market capitalism (ie.
global trade and the
market economy) is the most effective
means of
development. Falls under the wider regime of
mainstream development.
According to the 'Washington Consensus', 'democratic capitalism' will soon be accepted throughout the world. A global free market will become a reality. The manifold economic cultures and systems that the world has always contained will be redundant. They will be merged into a single universal free market.
John Gray, False Dawn , New York: The New Press, 1998, p. 4.
Underdevelopment theorists invoke the Washington Consensus as the major impediment to grass roots, bottom-up foreign aid.