Home Forum Political Economy Polanyi and CasP Reply To: Polanyi and CasP

#245586

Here’s my two cents about the problems with Polanyi. He writes:

normally, the economic order is merely a function of the social order.

This is a perfectly good statement that doesn’t need the ‘normally’ caveat. In fact, we can simplify things:

the economic order is the social order (and vice versa)

This is true in every society. The ‘social order’ is what Nitzan and Bichler call a ‘mode of power’, and it gets imposed on all activity (‘economic’ or otherwise). The problem with Polanyi is that he can see this ‘social order’ in feudal societies. But in capitalism he suddenly sees an ‘economic order’ that is distinct from society. Very odd.

In capitalism, the same principle holds. But now rather than feudal rules, market value is the social order — the mode of power.

More generally, I challenge anyone to find a society in which social norms and ideology do not determine the way resources are harvested and distributed. In other words, the ‘economy’ (capitalist or otherwise) is always embedded in society.