The Slight Transformation: Contesting the Legacy of Karl Polanyi

The postwar reconstruction of domestic and international orders ushered in a new political economy of capitalism. It entailed a far-reaching reorganization of social relations and economic institutions and accorded to the state an important role in the management of the economy. Many of the institutions of classical liberalism were displaced by interventionist mechanisms. The welfare state consolidated and extended multifarious forms of protection accorded to labor. A new level of labor-market regulation and public provisioning transformed the conditions under which people worked and lived, leading to higher incomes for large groups of society, and creating a higher degree of security for them both in the workplace and beyond. International institutions were created to facilitate the regulatory functions that these welfare states had assumed, supported by a conducive exchange-rate regime and restrictions on capital mobility.