Commissioned by the internationally acclaimed Save the Children Fund, this is a study of debt crisis and economic adjustment, and of their implications for poverty in developing countries. It is divided into two volumes. The first volume considers the issues at the national and international levels, covering: problems in the adjustment process; the effectiveness of the current approach to adjustment; and the links between debt, adjustment and the international economic and financial system.

Carvounis reviews the debt-servicing problems of developing countries, focusing on the experience of nine cases, mostly in Latin America. He stresses the adverse impact on the development prospects of these countries resulting from the adjustment policies that they have been required to pursue. Carvounis criticizes the current austerity-oriented approach to restoring orderly debt-servicing, maintaining that his emphasis is leading to severe economic, political, and social problems within these countries. He argues that the economic capacity and political will of borrowing countries to continue this route is dissipating. Choice

First published in 1999, this volume, the first to be published in on Jubilee 2000, describes the plight of 52 of the poorest nations in the world and puts in detail the case for radical cancellation of past inert debt. The cost and benefit of this remission and the groundbreaking concordat of peoples and governments that could accompany it are examined in detail. It contains critiques of the economic bases of the World Bank and IMF approaches to debt management in developing economies, as manifested in structural adjustment programmes and their maintenance, misuse of excess reserves and the methods used to carry out restructuring and development projects. The British anti-slavery campaign saw a mobilisation of public opinion for a great cause. Using this as a source of inspiration, public opinion must again be mobilised for what amounts to the greatest opportunity for justice, compassion and forgiveness facing us all at the beginning of a new millennium.

The papers presented here were first given at the International Conference of Economists at the University of Zagreb in Yugoslavia. The book contains a rare selection of divergent theoretical and practical views on the acute problem of international debt and its repercussions on world economic growth at large and the developing countries in particular.

This book addresses the question of how political capacity of the government of a developing country affects its ability to implement structural adjustments in its economy in response to external pressures. It builds on the inductive foundation of comparative case studies and speculative insights.