ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to assess the democratic deficit of two institutions that represent supranational governance, namely the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The democratic legitimacy and accountability of these institutions has been questioned, as evidenced by the protests and riots that have accompanied annual meetings in recent years, and also by a debate in the literature on reforms of the governance of these institutions (Dahl 1999; Stiglitz 2003; Verweij and Josling 2003; Rapkin and Strand 2005). On the other hand, given the attention paid to these institutions in recent reports calling for more development aid for Africa and for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (Commission for Africa 2005; UN Millennium Project directed by Jeffrey D. Sachs 2005), the positions of the Word Bank and the IMF in the development community seem firmly established.
