The vision of a world of partially closed national economies and state-controlled
national markets gave way to a vision of a fully open global economy with minimal
state involvement and free flows of goods and capital across national boundaries. The
spread of liberal economic policies in the developed countries, the creation of more
open economies in the developing countries and the integration of the ex-socialist
countries into the world economy have accelerated the process of globalization. The
changes in thinking about economic development and policy models can be best
situated within three different periods of the World Bank’ main development models.3
The first period going from 1980 to 1990, that of “structural adjustment”, was a
period of market shock and trade liberalization. The second period running from 1990
to 1999, which witnesses the emergence of “governance” was inaugurated by the
dismemberment of the Soviet Union, the dramatic political transformation of Eastern
Europe and a severe political crisis in the African continent in the late 1980s and early
1990s.