The political globalization trilemma revisited: An empirical assessment across countries and over time

Abstract

AbstractThe political globalization trilemma asserts that a government cannot simultaneously opt for deep international integration, national sovereignty and democratic politics, but rather is constrained to choosing two of the three at most. This paper employs cross‐country panel data operationalizing the multifaceted three vertices of the trilemma. After explorative data analysis, we employ panel error‐correction techniques to uncover the mutual interdependencies among the variables in the system. The econometric evidence supports the existence of a long‐run relationship between economic integration, national sovereignty and democratic politics as postulated in the political globalization trilemma.