The World Bank at 80

This article analyzes the trajectory of the World Bank (WB) from its creation in 1944 to its eightieth anniversary in 2024. It examines the main phases of the institution’s operations, with an emphasis on the evolution of its political agenda. It shows how the WB was built as part of the American global power infrastructure while simultaneously seeking to build its legitimacy as a multilateral organization with a technical and apolitical profile, through discursive and operational adaptations. The work argues that the institution has absorbed criticism, redesigned practices, and expanded its technical and political scope, moving to operate in nearly all areas of capitalist development – far beyond its original mandate. Finally, it discusses the contemporary challenges faced by the WB in an international scenario marked by multipolarity, the crisis of neoliberalism, social contestation, and the redefinition of the global order.

KEYWORDS:
World Bank; U.S. foreign policy; international development