ABSTRACT
A country’s influence at the IMF is supposed to come from the share of votes it controls, which is pegged to the country’s economic size. Voting, however, is rare at the Fund. Rather, the Fund operates by consensus. While this consensus rule was adopted in the early years of the IMF to allow greater say to members beside the US, many believe that IMF “consensus” is nonetheless dominated by the United States. New evidence suggests that non-governmental actors, such as international financiers, also have an important voice in the shaping of IMF programs.
