In recent years, development actors have pursued open markets and a robust administrative or executive state in the global South, thereby eroding democratic accountability. Markets and administrative bodies are held accountable not through the ballot box but through the rule of law, or effective enforcement of bargains along with checks on arbitrary power. What might it look like in the global South in the coming years? This paper argues that the World Bank's World Development Report 2017 demonstrates a new vision of the rule of law as a vehicle for public voice, and explores its institutional implications.