Underdevelopment historical analysis about management in Brazil: the influence of the World Bank on the consolidation of managerialism in public projects in the developing countries

Abstract

Abstract By adopting the 1990s as a timeframe, this article addresses the influence of multilateral institutions in carrying out development projects in Brazil, based on a historical review of the notion of Development Management (Brinkerhoff & Coston, 1999; Thomas, 1996). Consolidated reports from the World Bank Management Reform period were analyzed to investigate the normative suggestions made by the multilateral agency for the success of the ventures and implementation of investment in the country at the time. The study aligns with Critical Development Studies by presenting the historical development of the management experience in Brazil as a reflection of the power and influence of project management in developing countries. The theoretical framework adopted in this study was the critical perspective from the seminal approach of inter-organizational development projects in this countries by Ika and Hodgson (2014). The results demonstrate how multilateral agencies have operated in Latin America from a managerialist perspective. This novel understanding was developed by surveying the critical factors of the alignment between the management and the principles of globalization to shed light on the interests of the directive actions of international bodies in developing countries. The article concludes with evidence of the World Bank’s performance in cohesion with the development management area and dependence on the Western model for structuring the management apparatus.