External sources of ideational shift in domestic policy: The world bank and the Kenya public service

Abstract

This study was concerned with external pressure on domestic policy change as opposed to conventional studies of domestic sources of foreign policy. The study recognized the problem of uncontrolled Corruption in Kenya in spite of the anti-corruption measures that the Government has undertaken. The study aimed to examine the new ideas about management of government affairs that WB expected government to adopt, especially with regard to integrity in the public service and the old ideas that seemed obsolete. The study aimed to also investigate the means that IMF/WB used to compel ideational shift in Kenya's domestic policy and the extent of adoption of the new ideas about integrity in the Kenyan Public Service. Anti-corruption activities in the Kenya public service have occurred due to entry of new World Bank initiated ideas that strive to supplement the old ideas that constituted the basis for malpractice. Data shows heavy external influence in the form of new ideas about management of public affairs. The IMF and WB are the chief agencies of external pressure on domestic policy formation and action. The external forces compel adoption of the new ideas in ways that indirectly render sovereignty less significant than it is conveyed in its classical

meaning. The compulsion is achieved through manipulation of foreign economic

aid that the Kenya government is significantly dependent upon to meet its budget deficit. The WB dealt with the different forms of resistance to the new ideas by employing different strategies notably; aid, light-houses, financial assistance for specific changes, workshop system and the stakeholders approach. The study's conclusion is that external influence on domestic policy can occur in the form of ideas besides other forms conveyed through the conventional literature. Furthermore, such external pressure succeeds due to the vulnerability of dependence upon external support that is in turn an expression of domestic incompetence.