PROSPECTS OF AN INTERNATIONAL MONETARY SYSTEM CONSTITUTION

Cost-benefit reasons account for the adoption of the pre-World War I gold standard and the Bretton Woods system–the closest approximations to a constitution for the international monetary system that the world has experienced. Past rule-based international monetary proposals that were rejected were judged not to serve national interests. Current proposals do not deal with policymakers' and governments' self-interest in preserving their existing power to choose domestic objectives and to adopt policies to achieve those objectives.