Explain, with the help of an example, some of the costs associated with World Bank loans.

What will be an ideal response?


The recommendations and requirements associated with World Bank loans can often distort the local economy and lead to unintended negative effects. For example, when the price of steel (iron infused with carbon through smelting) dropped, Brazil turned to cutting down its rainforests to make charcoal for the smelting so that it could pay back the loan. Thus, the World Bank contributed—unintentionally—to deforestation. In the 1990s, World Bank conditions placed on loans to Bolivia required the water supply be privatized. As a result, a U.S.-based transnational corporation—Bechtel—controlled the water support (the government even made collecting rain water illegal) and ended up charging so much that citizens could not afford it. This led to resistance, uprising, and violence before Bolivia took control back from the company. The World Bank has also been criticized for contributing to the growing debt of developing countries and for serving as an agent of the wealthiest countries in the world by pushing capitalism, privatization, and access to developing world markets, resources, and cheap labor.

Political Science

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What will be an ideal response?

Political Science

The Sedition Act of 1798 was motivated by fears that

A. the new government would not hold if criticism by the press was unchecked. B. Federalists would try to recreate the French Revolution in the United States. C. Thomas Jefferson would try to recreate the French Revolution in the United States. D. the new government would not hold if Supreme Court powers were unchecked. E. All of these are correct.

Political Science

Foreign policy objectives typically

a. are vague and nondescript. b. assume the national interest of the nation. c. provide a vision for influencing the behavior of other state and nonstate actors. d. are specific and narrow.

Political Science

In Federalist No. 10, Madison defines a faction as "a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest ______.

A. adverse to the rights of other citizens but not to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community" B. adverse to the rights of other citizens or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community" C. adverse to the rights of a minority of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of that minority community" D. adverse to the rights of other citizens or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community and in particular to the stability of government"

Political Science