Feasible Globalizations

Abstract:

We want economic integration to help boost living standards. We want democratic politics so that public policy decisions are made by those that are directly affected by them (or their representatives). And we want self–determination, which comes with the nation–state. This paper argues that we cannot have all three things simultaneously. The political trilemma of the global economy is that the nation–state system, democratic politics, and full economic integration are mutually incompatible. We can have at most two out of the three. It follows that the direction in which we seem to be headed–global markets without global governance–is unsustainable.