Democratizing the Bretton Wood Institutions. Problems and Tentative Solutions.

This little book is the synthesis of years of research and direct observation of the work of the Bretton Woods institutions. It is also the result of many exchanges of views with actors and observers, executive directors, civil society representatives, colleagues. It describes the governance of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank from a legal-institutional point of view and looks for ways in which they could be changed in order to meet today's global democracy needs: legitimacy, accountability, inclusion. Its main focus is on the decision-making process as it affects the outcome of the international organizations’ activity.
As a consequence of the 2008 global financial crisis, wisemen and committees of experts were asked to analyze the flaws and weaknesses of global financial institutions. Their reports, along with papers by think tanks, scholars and civil society representatives, proposed actions and reforms. Systematizing and commenting those hints, a fact crops out: in spite of their seeming diversity, all recommended reforms are marked by significant affinities, evidencing an underlying sharing of the criticalities to be addressed and corrected. The book examines suggestions for reforming the Bretton Woods institutions as well as global economic governance in a plain and accessible language as a contribution to a necessary debate, which can't be confined to elite meetings and expert talks but has to involve all global citizens.