THE STRUCTURAL POWER OF BRICS IN MULTILATERAL DEVELOPMENT BANKING

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to take a critical look and upgrade the concept of structural power to better reflect the ‘area of social interactions’, where both the West and non-Western actors trade goods and articulate their needs. It accentuates the role of BRICS as a bold group of non-establishment powers which have accumulated enough resources, capabilities and expertise to change the rules of the game and challenge the established order (or the traditional structure in development and finance) by creating ‘alternative circuits’ capable of redirecting the political current and presenting ‘sticky’ Western institutions with the prospect of being eclipsed. This article illustrates how BRICS, by using both exit-voice pressure through ‘alter-native circuits’ (Multilateral Development Banks – MDBs) and incentives to resolve collective action problems (global infrastructure gap), can effectively shape regional and global structures in finance and development or, at least, influence those which have evolved from less nuanced forms of multilateralism.