Polanyi on Markets, Democracy and the Crisis of Liberalism

Karl Polanyi, who was born in 1886 in Vienna and died in 1964 in Pickering, Ontario remains a most influential theoretical figure in the social sciences, in particular stimulating both analytical and policy-related concerns that are related with the new institutionalism in economics, sociology and political science. Polanyian insights on the political economy of economic development from an institutional perspective have persistently shaped a variety of discourses that range from the theory of the welfare state to research in comparative economic systems and economic anthropology. Polanyi’s “Great Transformation” may be singled out as a key contribution to both the domains of economic sociology and political economy, as it addresses basic tensions between the developmental dynamics of the market economy and the institutional substance of political democracy (Block 2001).