  Another interesting feature of international institutions is that state consent appears to be a possible basis for the legitimacy of international institutions.  To be sure many would argue that international institutions ought to be evaluated solely on an instrumental basis and others would argue that only democratic international institutions can be legitimate.  But state consent does have a fighting chance of playing a large role in underpinning these institutions.  The international system is highly decentralized and states are by far the most important instruments for making power accountable to persons that we know of.