The Co-Evolution of the Washington Consensus and The Economic Development Discourse

In this paper I give an account of development debates of the past two decades, focusing on the Washington Consensus and on the broader economic development discourse in historical context. Section 2 gives a basic account of the Washington consensus and how its meaning changed from the original formulation. Section 3 presents the evolution of the economic development discourse since the second-world-war, through the 1980s, up to the present. Section 4 asks if there is now a new consensus on economic development, in light of the recent report of the Commission on Growth and Development. Section 5 concludes.