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The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy by Dani Rodrik New York: Norton, 2011

Dani Rodrik is well-known as a critic of ‘globalization’. Over a span of more than a decade, he has written numerous books, articles, and blog posts in which he takes issue with various aspects of international economic regulation. His latest effort is The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy. For those of who have read his past works, much of the book will be familiar. In this new book, he attempts to synthesize many of the specific arguments he has developed over the years, and he also incorporates his thinking on the recent financial crisis. The result is several proposals for changes to the existing international architecture of globalization. In the final chapter of the book, he offers up what he refers to as ‘A Sane Globalization’, involving suggestions related to trade, finance, and labor migration. This review focuses on his discussion of the trade issue. I begin with a brief overview of Rodrik’s description of the problems with the current trade regime and his suggestions for reform. I then offer a number of critiques of his arguments. Rodrik starts the discussion of the problems he sees in today’s trade regime by drawing a simple contrast between the GATT and the WTO. Put simply, in his view, the GATT was limited and good, whereas the WTO overreaches and is therefore bad. Looking at some specifics, Rodrik observes that under the GATT: (1) sensitive areas such as agriculture, textiles, and services were mostly excluded from the rules; (2) developing nations made few commitments to liberalize; and (3) import protection could be achieved through anti-dumping and safeguard measures. In addition to these substantive limitations to the GATT, Rodrik calls the GATT’s enforcement powers ‘a joke’ and its obligations ‘patently unenforceable’ (pp. 72–74). As a result, any substantive obligations were of limited effectiveness. While many people would (and did) consider these characteristics of the GATT to be flaws in need of correction, Rodrik sees them as positives. He attributes the GATT’s ‘success ’ to its ability ‘to achieve the maximum amount of trade compatible with different nations doing their own thing’, that is by keeping intrusion into domestic affairs to a minimum (p. 75). By contrast, he argues, the WTO pursues ‘hyperglobalization’, with its rules now applying to the previously excluded sectors, and also to such areas as intellectual property, health and safety rules, and subsidies (p. 78). In this regard, he says that while GATT cases were ‘ largely about tariffs and quotas’, WTO disputes ‘reach into domestic areas that were previously immune from external pressures ’ (p. 79). He notes that under the GATT’s ‘shallow integration’, the trade regime ‘require[d] relatively little of domestic policy’. By contrast, under the ‘deep integration’ of the WTO, World Trade Review (2011), 10 : 3, 409–421 f Cambridge University Press