Structural Adjustment: Theory, Practice and Impacts examines the problems associated with Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) and reveals the damaging impacts they can have. The book looks at how the debt crisis of the 1970's forced developing countries to seek external help and then reviews what constitutes as a standard adjustment programme, detailing the political, economic, social and environmental impacts of SAPs. The final section draws together theories and political responses and presents a case for alternatives to the programmes.

Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) are an important feature of contemporary development, yet they are often evaluated in the terms set out by lenders themselves, ignoring the wider implications of SAPs. This volume attempts to situate SAPs in a wider development context featuring case material from the UK, the USA, Ghana, Mexico, India, Jamaica, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Mali, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone. The book addresses SAPs in the lenders' terms, before addressing macro-economic issues, the impacts on social groups, and the impact upon welfare policies such as education and health....

This book challenges the notion that the Marxian approach is no longer relevant to the problems of contemporary society in the post-Soviet world. The first part of the book deals with the distinctive method of Marx's political economy, with an emphasis on its origins and the problems that arise out of misinterpretations of Capital . The second section applies this method to some of the key contemporary issues including unemployment, globalization and the crisis of the welfare state, and suggests that the approach of Marxist political economy remains a highly relevant and intellectually sound...