Dani Rodrik
Harvard political economist famous for the globalization trilemma—democratic sovereignty, national policy autonomy, and financial integration cannot all be maximized simultaneously—and for nuanced views on industrial policy.
Rodrik argues workable globalization requires institutional guardrails and space for local experimentation, not one-size-fits liberalization. His work legitimates selective industrial policy without romanticizing autarky.
He bridges trade theory and development practice—useful when state-level trade data collide with national security or manufacturing nostalgia.
Trilemma in plain language
Rodrik’s trilemma warns you cannot simultaneously run deep capital integration, national policy autonomy, and domestic democratic control at full tilt—trade, exchange-rate, and industrial-policy fights on this site all presuppose some corner of that constraint.