Power and Global Economic Institutions

What is the relationship between states' economic power and their formal political power in multilateral economic institutions? Why do we see variation in states' formal political power across economic institutions of the same era? In this book, Ayse Kaya examines these crucial under-explored questions, drawing on multiple theoretical traditions within international relations to advance a new approach of 'adjusted power'. She explains how the economic shifts of our time, marked by the rise of Brazil, Russia, India, China and other emerging economies, have affected and will impact key multilateral economic institutions. Through detailed contemporary and historical analyses of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the G20, and the International Trade Organization, Kaya shows that the institutional setting mediates the significance of the underlying distribution of economic power across states. The book presents both case studies and key statistics.

Major shifts in economic power, marked by the rise of the BRICS, have recently affected key multilateral economic institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund. Ayse Kaya advances a novel approach to understanding the relationship between states' economic power and their formal political power in multilateral economic institutions.

1. Introduction; 2. Conceptualizing political asymmetries in multilateral economic institutions; 3. The origins of states' formal equality in the global financial institutions; 4. The origins of states' voting equality in the post-war multilateral trading system; 5. Shifts in political power in the IMF in 2008¿10; 6. Shifts in political power in the World Bank in 2008¿10; 7. The G20: a delegatory institution; 8. Conclusions.