A New Trilemma Haunts the World Economy
It may be impossible simultaneously to combat climate change, boost the middle class in advanced economies, and reduce global poverty. Under current policy trajectories, any combination of two goals appears to come at the expense of the third.
CAMBRIDGE – I wrote a speculative article in 2000 on what I called “the political trilemma of the world economy.” My claim was that advanced forms of globalization, the nation-state, and mass politics could not coexist. Societies would eventually settle on (at most) two out of three.