We discuss the reform of the voting rules at the heart of the governance of the IMF and World Bank (the BWIs) in terms of three principles that we suggest ought to be fundamental: simplicity, transparency and democratic legitimacy. By simplicity we mean that the rules should make sense in terms...

This paper has been inspired by a suggestion made by Margaret Canovan that liberalism should be understood as a 'project to be realized'. It argues that we should follow Canovan by having an expendet account of what 'liberalism' might be that focuses on the connection between liberal theory and...

Global accountability is commonly understood as a contractual mechanism between principals and agents where standards of behavior are objective and respond to functional needs, agents are autonomous, motivations are self-interested and practices are procedural. This paper theorizes an...

The World Bank is, from a financial standpoint, organised like a corporation. Using its top credit rating (AAA), it raises funds in the international capital markets like any other financial institution for on-lending to its borrowing clients. As of June 2006, almost half (US$ 100 billion) of...

This article argues that the current G20 is unsustainable and should be replaced by a new body on a firmer constitutional foundation. It presents two designs, one of them a reformed version of the G20, the other a reformed version of the Bretton Woods (World Bank and IMF) governance arrangement....