International Organizations Climbing on a Ladder of Public Participation: A Case Study of the World Bank Instruments

Despite that a lot of attention has been paid to the legitimacy of IOs and the “transnational turn of global governance,” an in-depth analysis of access to information and public consultations as fairly new elements of public participation has not been conducted before. This article brings evidence from the World Bank (WB), its instruments of public involvement, and their practical usage in the last 10 years. The results show that in each of the “rungs” on the “ladder” of public participation, the WB designed a tool that is particularly used when a local aspect is involved. Therefore, I argue that the need for implementation of the IO policies on the ground might also drive their legitimation practices and the public participation in these instruments. Furthermore, the paper suggests that an exchange of resources between IOs and non-state actors can work both ways and their cooperation can thus be mutually beneficial.