Political trilemma of the world economy

Short description: Political responses to globalisation

The political trilemma of the world economy is a concept created by economist Dani Rodrik to capture the trade-offs that governments faced in their responses to globalization.[1][2][3][4][5] The trilemma holds that "democracy, national sovereignty and global economic integration are mutually incompatible: we can combine any two of the three, but never have all three simultaneously and in full."[6] According to Rodrik, states embraced globalization and national autonomy in the late 20th century, but sacrificed democratic decision-making.[7] In the post-World War II period, states sacrificed globalization while embracing democracy at home and national autonomy.[7] The trilemma suggests that the backlash against globalization in the last few decades is rooted in a desire to reclaim democracy and national autonomy, even if it undermines economic integration.[7] Rodrik first presented the trilemma in a 2000 paper.[8]

According to The Economist, one rebuttal to the trilemma is found in Albert Hirschman's writings.[9] Hirschman observed that diversification of trade (global economic integration) could bolster national sovereignty by making it harder for a state to be coerced by any other single state.[9]

## See also

* Impossible trinity
* International political economy

## References

1. ↑ "Why governments can't have it all". 2017. https://www.ft.com/content/63246e18-72b4-11e7-aca6-c6bd07df1a3c.
2. ↑ Snell, Jukka (2016). "The Trilemma of European Economic and Monetary Integration, and Its Consequences" (in en). European Law Journal 22 (2): 157–179. doi:10.1111/eulj.12165. ISSN 1468-0386. https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa24903.
3. ↑ Schoenmaker, Dirk (2011-04-01). "The financial trilemma" (in en). Economics Letters 111 (1): 57–59. doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2011.01.010. ISSN 0165-1765.
4. ↑ Crum, Ben (2013). "Saving the Euro at the Cost of Democracy?" (in en). JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 51 (4): 614–630. doi:10.1111/jcms.12019. ISSN 1468-5965.
5. ↑ Wolf, Nikolaus (2012-12-01). "Crises and policy responses within the political trilemma: Europe, 1929–36 and 2008–11". European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire 19 (6): 855–879. doi:10.1080/13507486.2012.741113. ISSN 1350-7486.
6. ↑ Rodrik, Dani (2007-06-27), The inescapable trilemma of the world economy, Typepad (Endurance International Group), http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2007/06/the-inescapable.html [self-published source]
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Oatley, Thomas (2019) (in en). International Political Economy: Sixth Edition. Routledge. pp. 462–464. ISBN 978-1-351-03464-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=4GJoDwAAQBAJ.
8. ↑ Rodrik, Dani (2000). "How Far Will International Economic Integration Go?" (in en). Journal of Economic Perspectives 14 (1): 177–186. doi:10.1257/jep.14.1.177. ISSN 0895-3309.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "The new globalisation paradox". The Economist. 2025. ISSN 0013-0613. https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/10/30/the-new-globalisation-paradox.

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