Writing in 2011, as our economies struggled for traction after the global financial crisis, Dani Rodrik identified what he called a “globalisation paradox”. The Harvard economist contended that it was impossible to simultaneously have democracy, national sovereignty and deep economic globalisation: what he called a “trilemma”.
With neoliberalism then already in crisis, Rodrik’s analysis prefigured in some ways the political economy of the subsequent decade and a half: Brexit, the election of Trump, Bidenomics, the turn away from hyperglobalisation towards democratic accountability and national sovereignty. For a country such as Ireland that adroitly surfed the surging waves of globalisation, this new dispensation poses risks and challenges for the decades ahead. Ireland is a poster child for the very model Rodrik says has run its course.
*** A version of this book review was first published in The Irish Times on 3 January 2026 ***
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