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It Is now fifty years since an inter‐governmental conference at the small American town of Bretton Woods set up two new institutions and agreed new 'rules of the game' for the governance of the international economic system. For many people, 'fifty years is enough' and there is an international debate about ways to reshape the governance of the international economic system so that it becomes more 'people‐friendly'.
This article offers an interpretation of the Bretton Woods system and the mode of operation and of thinking characteristic of the two institutions whose job is to safeguard that system — the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The aim is not to offer a comprehensive and detailed discussion of the activities of the Fund and the Bank over the last fifty years, but rather to reflect on the ways in which concerns about human well‐being informed the setting up of the system and continue to inform its functioning fifty years later. In order to provide a framework in which to assess this dimension of the Bretton Woods system, we first consider ideas of people‐centred development and money‐centred development. We then consider the interplay of human well‐being and financial well‐being in the original process of setting up the Bretton Woods system, and in its functioning in the last fifteen years. Finally we raise the issue of redressing the balance between money and people.

Voicing criticism seems to be a difficult task for employees in international organisations (IOs), as numerous anecdotes in the literature suggest. This observation is alarming, since internal criticism is an indispensable resource for organisational learning processes. So why are IOs apparently not using this resource to its full potential? The present article is the first to provide a comprehensive answer to this question by combining insights from organisation theory with an empirical case study of the UN Secretariat. My general argument is that 'criticism from within' is ambivalent. It can be a resource for, but also a threat to IOs: internal criticism can endanger an IO's external reputation as well as destabilise the organisation from within. Based on this theoretical understanding, I identify and empirically examine three specific reasons for the UN Secretariat's weak criticism culture: (1) Criticism is suppressed due to a widespread fear of leaks resulting from external pressures. (2) Criticism is avoided as a strategy of self-protection in the face of (inevitable) failures. (3) Constructive criticism is difficult to express in settings where organisational hypocrisy is necessary.

PurposeThis paper aims to introduce the extended qualitative content analysis (EQCA) method to integrate data-reducing and data-complicating research steps when conducting qualitative research on the United Nations and other international institutions.Design/methodology/approachEQCA supplements the method of qualitative content analysis, which enables researchers to deal with large amounts of data, with two elements from grounded theory, which allow detailed analysis and interpretation of codes and sub-codes. The elements in question are axial coding and theoretical sampling.FindingsEQCA provides a method to generate middle-range theories by combining theoretical and empirical analysis to address and theorize the complex interactions between actors, structures and norms in international institutions. The value added by the proposed method is demonstrated with a case study of a United Nations intergovernmental working group in the issue area of business and human rights.Originality/valueBased on the concepts of interpretation and social causality, this paper contributes to the body of qualitative research that transcends the dichotomy between positivist and post-positivist approaches in the disciplines of international relations and international political theory.

MANY INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, FOUNDED DURING OR JUST AFTER the Second World War, are passing their fiftieth anniversaries, which have become the occasions for reviewing their past performance and looking into the future. This has already happened for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, launched at Bretton Woods in 1944; and for the United Nations (UN), inaugurated in 1945. The fiftieth anniversary of the Marshall Plan, the origin (at one remove) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), falls in the summer of 1997. The anniversary of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is not till 1998. But the end of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations and the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have already prompted some backward looks.

How do international institutions affect political liberalization in member states? Motivated by an examination of the World Bank loans program, this article shows that institutions can incentivize liberalization by offering opportunities for countries to become associated with advanced, wealthy members. In the World Bank, when a loan recipient reaches a specified level of economic development, it becomes eligible to graduate from borrower status to lender status. Using a regression discontinuity design, the study demonstrates that this incentive motivates states to improve their domestic behavior with respect to human rights and democracy. Combining qualitative and quantitative evidence, the results suggest that the desire to become a member of this elite group is responsible for motivating member states to reform due to the belief that such membership brings diffuse international and domestic benefits.

International Comparative Research: Social Structures and Public Institutions in Eastern and Western Europe is a seven-chapter book prepared for the Second International Seminar on Cross-National Comparative Research. Chapters 1 and 2 describe developments in comparative research on social structure and comparisons of social mobility in different socio-economic systems. Subsequent chapters explore structural changes and mobility in a capitalist and a socialist society; comparative research on public institutions; a comparative perspective on social problems and the law; and comparison of publi