Colombia and OECD

This chapter examines how institutional imperialism technically shapes and politically frames national development in the dynamic relations between the world order and regions. The investigation focuses on the political economy of Colombia’s incorporation into the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) between 2010 and 2018. Departing from a critical global political economy (GPE) approach, the investigation critically explores the role assumed by the OECD as neutral and purely technical, analyzing the dynamics of power in the intersections of domestic-international economics. It shows how the OECD technically shapes and politically frames national development in key areas that define the international insertion of the country into the world economy, with domestic laws based on the Washington Consensus and post-Consensus. Three major conclusions are reached. The first is that international organizations can determine domestic policies of development with the aim of inserting peripheral countries within an imperialist economy so as to facilitate the transfer of value, as is shown to be the case with Colombia. The second contribution is how multilateral recommendations become central conditionalities that define the relationship between the international organization and the state but are presented as neutral and technical standards. Finally, the chapter describes how this dynamic of imperialist economic integration took form in several domestic policies in Colombia, presenting them as ‘better policies for development’.