En ny maktfaktor i en världsordning i förändring: En kvalitativ studie om the New Development Bank, Världsbanken och global governance

Abstract

During the last decades, the international political and financial landscape has changed dramatically. China surpassed the U.S as the world’s largest economy in purchasing-power-parity terms in 2014 and emerging economies now account for around 50 % of global GDP. However, despite this power shift accompanying the rise of emerging economies, the representation in international financial institutions is still biased towards advanced economies. The so called BRICS-countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – account for more than 20 % of global GDP but hold only 13 % of the voting power in the World Bank (WB). In July 2014 the BRICS-countries announced the establishment of the New Development Bank (NDB). The aim of this study is to shed light on this power shift accompanying the rise of emerging economies. Furthermore, as an illustration of this, the aim is to compare NDB and WB, to find out if there are any differences between the two development banks in order to try to clarify whether and in what ways NDB is an alternative to WB. The method applied is a qualitative text analysis, with which research reports, news articles and other texts concerning how the NDB is portrayed, are examined. The comparison between the two banks focuses on the Articles of Agreement of each bank. With reference to the context of changed political and financial landscape, the theoretical framework applied consists of the concepts power, governance and conflict. The main findings of this study are that the establishment of NDB is portrayed as a major political move; as an institution that gives voice to emerging economies and developing countries; and as an alternative source to financing with a possibly alternative approach to development. Furthermore, this study also shows that the differences most prominent between NDB and WB are the ones concerning the banks’ governance structure, regulations about voting power in particular. By applying the theoretical framework of this study, these findings lead to the conclusion that the establishment of NDB is a manifestation of the conflict in global governance accompanying the shift of power in the international landscape. Furthermore, by bypassing existing institutions and establishing their own, along with the similarities between the two banks’ financial instruments and business model, the establishment of NDB shows what the BRICS perceives global governance being in need of: not of radically different financial models, but of a more multilateral governance structure.