Ariel Ivanier

My project explores a recent argument on the extent to which global justice principles may shape the workings of the World Trade Organization and Bretton Woods’ lending institutions as interpreted by Robert Hockett. His “new institutionalist” defense of actual trade and financial regimes as potential cosmopolitan agents often overlooks the role powerful states have played in shaping structures and policies of the organizations over time. I argue that a cosmopolitan critique needs to engage in a discussion of basic flaws in Bretton Woods’ and WTO’s democratic governance that conspire against the realization of even moderate egalitarian values.