Revolution – more Kerensky than Bolshevik – is in the air at this week’s annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC. Both institutions have new leaders, Robert Zoellick at the Bank and Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the IMF, who have taken over from their embattled predecessors at a time of plunging staff morale and growing external criticism. In the West, both conservatives and radicals argue for revolutionary change in the institutions – or their closure. In developing countries, an even greater threat looms: that the Bank and Fund are becoming irrelevant, eclipsed by single-issue aid funds, changes in capital markets and the growth of Asia’s mega economies as a source of investment and trade. This year the Bank is struggling to raise funds for its soft loan fund. Developing countries are furious about the way that the US and Europe railroaded their candidates into the Bank and Fund leaderships this year without any commitments on governance reform or accountability. Promises proliferate: Zoellick, prompted by Norway, has agreed to research capital flight and tax evasion; Strauss-Kahn is proposing a double majority decision-making system at the IMF which should mean poorer countries are better represented. Both the chiefs talk about ‘rebuilding legitimacy’ and this year may be their best chance.