Doing Missionary Work

Through a study of education reform in Latin America, this inquiry examines how the World Bank functions like a modern-day missionary. Analyzing the accounting procedures embedded in the Bank`s loan agreements, this account illustrates how the institution diffuses its neoliberal perspective on development throughout the world, arguing that the Bank does not just lend money--it imposes its ideology on its recipient countries as well. Thus the tools of missionary work have changed: while the promise of betterment and salvation remains, a testament of planning mechanisms, performance indicators, and financial reports has replaced the Bible.