Institute of Sociology NASU

Reforms under the auspices of the IMF: Beware of Greeks bearing gifts

stmm. 2019 (2): 169-186

UDC 316.334.2:339.732.4

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2019.02.169

Anatolii Arseienko - Candidate of Historical Sciences, Leading Research Fellow at the Department of Economic Sociology, Institute of Sociology of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv).

Email: anatoliy.arseenko@gmail.com

ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3137-6487

Vitalina Butkaliuk - Candidate of Sciences in Sociology, Research Fellow at the Department of Economic Sociology, Institute of Sociology of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv).

Email: vbutkalyuk@ukr.net

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1339-6393

Abstract. The paper studies structure, content and political aspects of the International Monetary Fund’s activities from the perspective of historical and economic sociology. Attention is primarily given to IMF policies implemented in “Third World” countries and “transition” economies after the dismantling of socialism in the USSR and Eastern Europe and collapse of the socialist world system. Drawing upon the relevant literature and social survey findings, the authors argue that radical economic reforms carried out in Ukraine under the aegis of the IMF have proved useless. Furthermore, these reforms have pushed this country to the fringe of peripheral capitalism and turned it into a mere appendage to the “golden billion”. The growth in negative attitudes towards collaboration with the IMF among Ukraine’s citizens indicates a gradual rise of their awareness that there is no prospect of this country’s successful development within the framework of the global neoliberal project.

Keywords: the IMF, the Washington Consensus, neoliberalism, economic reforms, neoliberal economics, public debt, inequality, the lives of ordinary people

Publication in: ukr | rus

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