scholarly journals Decision-Making in the International Monetary Fund: Implications for Sovereign Equality of States

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (37) ◽  
pp. 44-66
Author(s):  
Alex Ansong
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Joint Stock Company ◽  
Stock Company ◽  
Sovereign Equality ◽  
International Economic Cooperation ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
The Imf

Abstract The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is one of the post-Second World War international organizations set up to promote good international economic cooperation among states. Unlike international organizations like the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (which succeeded the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade 1947), decision-making in the IMF is quite peculiar in that it is based on the joint stock company model where the value of shares determine the value of a member’s vote. Thus the principle of sovereign equality of states that underpins the one-member-one-vote system in the UN and WTO is absent in the IMF. This paper discusses the various decisionmaking organs in the IMF and concludes with a discussion on the sovereignty implications of the use of IMF conditionalities in the giving of loans, especially to developing countries.

Selected Decisions and Selected Documents of the International Monetary Fund, Forty First Issue Supplement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Executive Board ◽  
Second Amendment ◽  
Board Of Governors ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
Frequent Reference ◽  
Made In ◽  
The Imf

This volume is the Forty-First Issue of Selected Decisions and Selected Documents of the IMF. It includes decisions, interpretations, and resolutions of the Executive Board and the Board of Governors of the IMF, as well as selected documents, to which frequent reference is made in the current activities of the IMF. In addition, it includes certain documents relating to the IMF, the United Nations, and other international organizations. As with other recent issues, the number of decisions in force continues to increase, with the decision format tending to be longer given the use of summings up in lieu of formal decisions. Accordingly, it has become necessary to delete certain decisions that were included in earlier issues, that is, those that only completed or called for reviews of decisions, those that lapsed, and those that were superseded by more recent decisions. Wherever reference is made in these decisions and documents to a provision of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement or Rules and Regulations that has subsequently been renumbered by, or because of, the Second Amendment of the Fund’s Articles of Agreement (effective April 1, 1978), the corresponding provision currently in effect is cited in a footnote.

scholarly journals Practising what they Preach: Did the IMF and Iceland Exercise Good Governance in their Relations 2008-2011?

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hjálti Ómar Ágústsson ◽  
Rachael Lorna Johnstone
Keyword(s):  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
The Past ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
The Imf

Between September 2008 and August 2011, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Iceland were engaged in cooperation under a stand-by agreement involving a loan from the IMF to Iceland of over 2bn USD. The IMF is one of a number of major international institutions that has been increasing its emphasis on good governance over the past two decades, in particular, emphasising the need for improved governance in debtor countries. In this paper, the authors review the extent to which principles of good governance were exercised in the interaction between the IMF and Iceland within the context of the stand-by programme.

scholarly journals Representation and Governance in International Organizations

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. Rapkin ◽  
Jonathan R. Strand ◽  
Michael W. Trevathan
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Representational Practices ◽  
Empirical Implications ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
Supranational Level

What does representation mean when applied to international organizations? While many scholars working on normative questions related to global governance often make use of the concept of representation, few have addressed specifics of applying the concept to the rules and practices by which IOs operate. This article examines representation as a fundamental, albeit often neglected, norm of governance which, if perceived to be deficient or unfair, can interfere with other components of governance, as well as with performance of an organization’s core tasks by undermining legitimacy. We argue that the concept of representation has been neglected in the ongoing debates about good governance and democratic deficits within IOs. We aim to correct this by drawing on insights from normative political theory considerations of representation. The article then applies theoretical aspects of representation to the governance of the International Monetary Fund. We determine that subjecting IOs to this kind of conceptual scrutiny highlights important deficiencies in representational practices in global politics. Finally, our conclusion argues scholars of global governance need to address the normative and empirical implications of conceptualizing representation at the supranational level.

scholarly journals Adding Fuel to Fire: How IMF demands for austerity will drive up inequality worldwide

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nona Tamale
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Uneven Distribution ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Global Institutions ◽  
Briefing Paper ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
The Imf

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a huge blow to every country, and many governments have struggled to meet their populations’ urgent needs during the crisis. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stepped in to offer extra support to a large number of countries during the pandemic. However, Oxfam’s analysis shows that as of 15 March 2021, 85% of the 107 COVID-19 loans negotiated between the IMF and 85 governments indicate plans to undertake austerity once the health crisis abates. The findings in this briefing paper show that the IMF is systematically encouraging countries to adopt austerity measures once the pandemic subsides, risking a severe spike in already increased inequality levels. A variety of studies have revealed the uneven distribution of the burden of austerity, which is more likely to be shouldered by women, low-income households and vulnerable groups, while the wealth of the richest people increases. Oxfam joins global institutions and civil society in urging governments worldwide and the IMF to focus their energies instead on a people-centred, just and equal recovery that will fight inequality and not fuel it. Austerity will not ‘build back better’.

From IMF Poster Child to Wayward Student

2019 ◽  
pp. 185-193
Author(s):  
Jerome Roos
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Financial System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fiscal Discipline ◽  
Enforcement Mechanism ◽  
International Financial System ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
The Imf

This chapter considers why the International Monetary Fund (IMF) did it not prevent Argentina's record default of 2001. It suggests that the IMF was both unable and unwilling to stop it. While the second enforcement mechanism of conditional IMF lending was initially fully operative, helping to enforce Argentina's compliance in the first years of the crisis, the outcome of the megaswap greatly reduced the risk of an Argentine default to the international financial system. Combined with mounting domestic opposition in the United States to further international bailout loans, this greatly weakened the IMF's capacity to impose fiscal discipline on Argentina, eventually leading the Fund to pull the plug on its own bailout program, causing the second enforcement mechanism to break down altogether. The chapter recounts the process through which this breakdown occurred.

From One Crisis to the Next

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen C. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Economic Collapse ◽  
Imf Programs ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

This chapter examines Argentina's relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the period 1985–2002. It first considers the new policy team formed by Argentine President Raúl Alfonsín and its plan to solve the country's spiraling inflation problem before discussing the successive failed stabilization programs, including Plan Austral and Plan BB, that culminated in Alfonsín's resignation and the transformation of the Argentine economy under a group of neoliberals in the Peronist government of Carlos Menem. It also analyzes the politics surrounding the series of IMF programs that preceded the economic collapse of 2001–2002, along with the United States's influence on the decision making of the Fund. Finally, it assesses the aftermath of the Argentine crisis.

Argentina and the IMF in Turbulent Times, 1976–1984

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen C. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Sovereign Default ◽  
Military Junta ◽  
Turbulent Times ◽  
Economic Beliefs ◽  
The Military ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
Economic Policymaking ◽  
The Imf

This chapter examines Argentina's relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the period 1976–1984. It tracks Argentina's engagement with the IMF from the arrival of a Fund mission soon after the military junta took power in 1976 through to the economic meltdown in the last months of 2001, which culminated in the withdrawal of IMF support for the country and the largest sovereign default in history to that point. The Argentina-IMF case is used to test the argument linking treatment of borrowers to shared economic beliefs. The chapter first provides an overview of economic policymaking in Argentina in 1976–1981 and in 1991–2001; economic policymaking in the latter period was dominated by neoliberals. It also compares the economic beliefs of neoliberals with those of structuralists and concludes with a discussion of the breakdown in Argentine-IMF relations.

20. International organizations in world politics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Park
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Democratic Deficit ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

This chapter examines the role that international organizations play in world politics. It explains what international organizations are, whether we need international organizations in international relations, and what constraints and opportunities exist for international organizations to achieve their mandates. The chapter also considers the reasons why states create international organizations and how we can analyse the behaviour of such organizations. Two case studies are presented: the first is about the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the G77, and the second is about the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the interests of money-centre banks. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether international organizations suffer from a ‘democratic deficit’.

Part II Commercial Aspects of the Marine Environment, 6 The Work of the International Monetary Fund and Its Possible Relevance to Global Ocean Governance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doussis Emmanuella
Keyword(s):  
International Monetary Fund ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
International Agencies ◽  
Ocean Governance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
The Imf

This chapter discusses the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in global ocean governance. It first traces the history of the IMF, from its inception at Bretton Woods in 1944 to the late 1970s and beyond, and highlights the factors that have influenced its institutional development as well as its current institutional profile. It then describes the IMF’s membership, structure, main functions, and decision-making processes before analysing the possible input of the Fund to matters related to ocean governance. In particular, it considers the ways in which the IMF is involved in global ocean governance through its three main functions: economic surveillance, lending, and capacity building. Although the Fund has no direct relevance to global ocean governance, the chapter shows that the IMF may contribute to its improvement by providing technical assistance and policy advice, as well as a better interaction with other, more competent, international agencies.

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