Denying democracy: How the IMF and World Bank take power from people

This report is concerned with democracy; a complex issue at the best of
times, made even more complex not only by the many local, regional and
national struggles for self-determination across the globe but also by the
development of supra-national decision-making bodies that are many
times removed from individual citizens. It is this latter complexity, and in
particular the actions of the two principal International Financial
Institutions (IFIs) – the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)
– that provides the focus for this report.

While on the one hand it could be argued that during the 20th Century
several key advances were made in terms of citizen participation in
politics (eg, universal suffrage in many countries), on the other it could be
argued that the same period also saw the creation of a range of
international institutions that reduced the ability of individuals to
participate in decisions affecting their daily lives; from the United Nations
and its many sub-sections to the World Bank, IMF and World Trade
Organisation (WTO). It is the latter three that have been the subject of the
fiercest public protest and, although much recent attention has been
focused on the WTO, it is the World Bank and IMF that have been the
target of the most sustained criticism over the past two to three decades.

In response to this criticism, the IMF and World Bank have, in recent
years, adopted new ways of working and new rhetoric on ‘country
ownership’ and ‘participation’. This report is therefore intended as an
update; a fresh look, in light of these developments, at how the IFIs
impact on democracy.