The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World EconomyWelcome to College! You can only afford to maintain two of the next three options: adequate sleep, a social life, and good grades. In Dani Rodrik's new book, The Globalization Paradox, a similar triangle is highlighted. The author presents us with a “trilemma” composed of hyperglobalization, democratic politics and the nation-state. You can efficiently balance two of these three “corners” of the triangle, but no more than two. Rodrik argues that our current worldview on globalization is that the more the better. However, this is a wrong way of thinking, in the sense that more globalization is not necessarily better globalization; we must instead aim for "intelligent" globalization rather than "maximum" globalization. Rodrik uses a large amount of real-world events, past and present theories, and statistics as evidence. In this essay I will first give a brief overview of Rodrik's main argument and the evidence supporting it. Furthermore, I will try to compare Rodrik's arguments with Friedman's. Finally, I will analyze the specific statement that Rodrik makes (and which I found very interesting) regarding the obstacle of hyperglobalization on national democracies. In an interview with the Peterson Institute, Rodrik says he is trying to create “a new narrative to shape the next phase of globalization and to address the imbalance between the national reach of governments and the global nature of markets,” in many ways this book does just this. As previously stated, Rodrik diagnosed a “political trilemma of the world economy”. other words, I would like to focus on a quick and paperless argument, which is that globalization hinders national democracy. In conclusion, Rodrik says we need to reduce our ambitions for globalization, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. healthy global economy, each nation-state must do what is best for itself, not what is best for the global economy Rodrik also addresses a misconception: we must not think of the global economy as an ecosystem, where everything we insert affects others negatively or positively. While the things in our ecosystem, the air, the water, etc., do not belong to anyone. Global trade and financial policies are semi-private goods. Trade is good for each country, in and of itself. The trade that a nation state does is for the benefit of that nation state. So, fundamentally, a global economy is determined by the interests of each individual country.