Economía y democracia (1932)

TEXTO CLÁSICO Karl Polanyi * “Wirtschaft un Demokratie”, Der Österreichische Volkswirt, nº 13-14, 24 diciembre 1932, pp. 301-303. Este artículo forma parte de Los límites del Mercado, antología publicada por Capitán Swing. Agradecemos a esta editorial la autorización para la inclusión en este monográfico.Entre la economía y la política se ha abierto una profunda sima de separación. Tal es el crudo diagnóstico de nuestra época. Economía y política, estas dos formas de la vida de la sociedad, se han hecho autónomas, y han entablado entre sí una guerra sin cuartel, hasta el punto de que se han convertido en los signos de identidad a través de los cuales tanto los partidos políticos como las clases económicas expresan sus conflictos de intereses. ¡Prueba de ello es que la derecha y la izquierda se enfrentan en la actualidad, en nombre respectivamente de la economía y de la democracia, como si estas dos funciones de base de la sociedad pudiesen estar encarnadas exclusivamente por dos partidos diferentes en el interior del Estado! Sin embargo los eslóganes no hacen más que disimular una realidad cruel: La izquierda se polariza en torno a la democracia, mientras que la derecha lo hace en torno a la economía, de modo que el disfuncionamiento entre economía y política se despliega en una especie de bipolaridad catastrófica. Desde el bando de la democracia política surgen las fuerzas que afectan a la economía, la perturban y la obstaculizan. La economía, por su parte, responde mediante un asalto general contra la democracia, lo que supone optar por un economicismo irresponsable, poco realista

Nuestra obsoleta mentalidad de mercado

Karl Polanyi es poco conocido entre los economistas, aunque sea muy influyente en otras disciplinas. El derrumbamiento de los regímenes orientales de Europa Oriental ha renovado el interés en sus trabajos: ante todo entre quienes intentan justificar la ineficiencia económica de los regímenes totalitarios, apoyan el restablecimiento de los derechos humanos y buscan que los gobiernos sean responsables ante los ciudadanos, sin confiar críticamente sobre las fuerzas de mercado. Su obra empieza a ser consultada por quienes buscan alternativas para modernizar las sociedades latinoamericanas sin olvidar las complejas necesidades del ser humano. Las tradiciones liberales son insuficientes aquí y allá: no se pueden abandonar las libertades individuales, pero éstas deben ser recreadas; no se puede restaurar un sistema social obsoleto, cuyos males oculta la bruma de la ideología; la sociedad debe reconstruirse aprendiendo las lecciones que somos capaces de aprender; por ejemplo, que la motivaciones humanas no se circunscriben a una sola institución, la del mercado autoregulado, donde el hambre y la ganancia son los móviles aparentes del trabajo y la eficiencia. Esperar que el progreso y la paz mundial se logren a través del comercio es una ingenuidad engañosa y nociva. Ni un sistema nacional ni un sistema internacional pueden depender de reguladores automáticos. Los presupuestos equilibrados, la libre empresa, los tipos de cambio flexibles no garantizan el orden internacional. Sólo la sociedad puede garantizarlo, de modo que la sociedad internacional también debe ser recreada, creando las instituciones reguladoras adecuadas.Karl Polanyi is little-known among economists, though highly influential in other disciplines. The crumbling of the Eastern European regimes has renewed interest in his work, especially among those who, without wishing to justify the economic inefficiencies of the totalitarian regimes, support the restoration of human rights and would like to see governments behaving responsibly towards society, withoutrelying uncritically on market forces. Liberal tradition is not enough, either there or here. Indi vidual freedoms cannot be abandoned: they must be re-created. An obsolete social sys tem , whose evils were hidden by the fog of ideology, cannot be brought back. Society must rebuild itself, learning such lessons as we are able to learn: for example, the fact that human motivation does not revolve around a single institutionthe self-regulating market where hunger and profitare the apparent motives for men to work and be efficient. It is ingenuous, and deceitfully and harmfully so, to believe that world peace and progress will be achieved by trade. Neither a national nor an international system can rely on self-regulation. Balanced budgets, free enterprise and flexible exchange rates will not secure international order: onlysociety can achieve this, and international society must also be re-created, with the appropriate regulatory institutions

A nossa mentalidade obsoleta de mercado

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Polanyi warned that the free market could destroy nature and the human species. Societies have combined three basic economic forms: redistribution, reciprocity and interchange. In the postwar period, the welfare state combined market and redistribution and improved living standards. In the 1980s, the market was given absolute primacy based on that it processes information and allocates resources better than human and that institutions must operate in the same way as the market, which came to be considered universal, eternal and omniscient. The results of leaving the solution of the problems created by the market to the free functioning of markets are tragic: the destruction of the natural world and the concentration of wealth have accelerated, and there are countless avoidable deaths and tragic losses of well-being. Today it is all the more necessary to create a new order that requires an inner freedom for which the market society has ill-prepared us.Después de Hiroshima y Nagasaki, Polanyi advirtió que el libre mercado podía destruir la naturaleza y la especie humana. Las sociedades han combinado tres formas económicas básicas: redistribución, reciprocidad e intercambio. En la postguerra, el Estado de bienestar conjugó el mercado y la redistribución, y mejoró los niveles de vida. En los años ochenta se dio primacía absoluta al mercado con base en que procesa la información y asigna los recursos mejor que los humanos y que las instituciones deben operar como un mercado, que pasó a considerarse universal, eterno y omnisciente. Los resultados de dejar la solución de problemas creados por el mercado al libre funcionamiento de los mercados son trágicos: se aceleró la destrucción del mundo natural y la concentración de la riqueza, son incontables las muertes evitables y trágicas las pérdidas de bienestar. Hoy es más necesario crear un nuevo orden que requiere una libertad interior para la que nos ha preparado mal la sociedad de mercado.Depois de Hiroshima e Nagasaki, Polanyi avisou que o mercado livre poderia destruir a natureza e a espécie humana. As sociedades combinaram três formas económicas básicas: redistribuição, reciprocidade e intercâmbio. No período pós-guerra, o Estado-Providência combinou mercado e redistribuição e melhorou o nível de vida. Na década de 1980, o mercado recebeu a primazia absoluta com base na ideia de que processava a informação e afectava os recursos melhor do que os humanos e que as instituições deviam funcionar como o mercado, que passou a ser considerado universal, eterno e omnisciente. Os resultados de deixar a solução dos problemas criados pelo mercado ao livre funcionamento dos mercados são trágicos: a destruição do mundo natural e a concentração da riqueza aceleraram, e há incontáveis mortes evitáveis e perdas trágicas de bem-estar. Hoje em dia é ainda mais necessário criar uma nova ordem que requer uma liberdade interior para a qual a sociedade de mercado nos preparou mal

The Two Meanings of Economic

In this text Karl Polanyi explains the two meanings of economic: the formal, which springs from the logical character of the means-ends relationship, and from which springs the scarcity definition of economic, and the substantive meaning, which points to the elemental fact that human beings, like all other living things, cannot exist for any length of time without a physical environment that sustains them. The two meanings, the formal and the substantive, have nothing in common. According to the author how solidly the two meanings were joined can be inferred from the ironic fate of the most controversial of modern mythological figures – economic man.Nel testo Karl Polanyi illustra i due significati di economico: il significato formale, che deriva dalla natura logica della relazione mezzi-fini e da cui discende la definizione di economico basata sulla scarsità, e il significato sostanziale, che rinvia al fatto che gli esseri umani, come tutti gli esseri viventi, non possono mantenersi in vita senza un ambiente materiale che li sostenga. I due significati non hanno nulla in comune. Secondo l’autore la solidità della congiunzione dei due termini si può capire dalla sorte ironica della più controversa fra le figure mitologiche moderne: l’uomo economico

Flexible markets, stable societies?

"Parallel zum Niedergang des Normalarbeitsverhältnisses seit den Siebzigerjahren haben auch die familiären Beziehungen an institutioneller Verbindlichkeit verloren. Das Papier - die leicht überarbeitete Fassung eines Plenarvortrags beim 34. Deutschen Soziologentag im Oktober 2008 - diskutiert mögliche Zusammenhänge zwischen der Flexibilisierung von Arbeitsmärkten und Familienstrukturen und setzt diese in Beziehung zu der gleichzeitig gesunkenen Geburtenrate. Als Ursache der Koevolution von Arbeitsmärkten und Familienbeziehungen kommen sowohl die Attraktivität freier Märkte als auch die von ihnen ausgehenden wirtschaftlichen Zwänge in Frage. Der gegenwärtige Übergang zu einer neuen, auf Hebung der Geburtenrate zielenden Sozialpolitik ist ein Beispiel, wie die Expansion von Marktbeziehungen und die von ihr ausgehende Unsicherheit auch der persönlichen Lebensverhältnisse Forderungen nach staatlicher Intervention nach sich zieht. Die Logik ist dieselbe wie in der Bankenkrise, wo die Befreiung der Kapitalmärkte von traditionellen Beschränkungen und die zunehmende Kommodifizierung des Geldes den Staat gezwungen haben, mit öffentlichen Mitteln stabile Erwartungen und gegenseitiges Vertrauen wiederherzustellen. In beiden Fällen, und wahrscheinlich generell, erzeugt Kapitalismus ein Bedürfnis nach staatlicher Ersatzbeschaffung für soziale Beziehungen, die als Folge ihrer Vermarktung ihre ursprünglichen Funktionen nicht mehr zu erfüllen vermögen." (Autorenreferat)"The dissolution of the standard employment relationship since the 1970s has been paralleled by a destabilization of family relations. The paper, which is a slightly revised version of a plenary lecture at the 2008 Meeting of the German Sociological Association, discusses possible connections between the rise of more flexible labor market and family structures, and explores how they might tie in with the declining birth rate. The co-evolution of labor markets and family relations can be explained by both the attractions and the constraints of free markets. The current shift toward a new social policy aimed at increasing fertility is presented as an example of how expanding market relations and the uncertainty to which they give rise in personal life cause demands for state intervention. The logic seems remarkably similar to that of the current banking crisis, where the liberation of financial markets from traditional constraints and the progressive commodification of money have ultimately issued in irresistible pressures on the state to step in and restore the social commons of stable expectations and mutual confidence. In both cases, and perhaps generally, capitalism seems to imply a need for a public power capable of creating substitutes for social relations invaded by market relations and as a consequence losing their capacity to perform some of their previous functions." (author's abstract

Adam Smith’s Green Thumb and Malthus’ Three Horsemen: Cautionary tales from classical political economy

This essay identifies a contradiction between the flourishing interest in the environmental economics of the classical period and a lack of critical parsing of the works of its leading representatives. Its focus is the work of Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus. It offers a critical analysis of their contribution to environmental thought and surveys the work of their contemporary devotees. It scrutinizes Smith's contribution to what Karl Polanyi termed the "economistic fallacy," as well as his defenses of class hierarchy, the "growth imperative" and consumerism. It subjects to critical appraisal Malthus's enthusiasm for private property and the market system, and his opposition to market regulation. While Malthus's principal attraction to ecological economists lies in his having allegedly broadened the scope of economics, and in his narrative of scarcity, this article shows that he, in fact, narrowed the scope of the discipline and conceptualized scarcity in a reified and pseudo-scientific way

Capitalism, Democracy, and the Degrowth Horizon

This papers seeks to contribute to a dialogue between the degrowth perspective and Marxist approaches on the sources and possible solutions to the ongoing ecological crisis of capitalism. While I agree with the general critique that the degrowth movement has raised not only against the consequences of growth but also against the idea of growth itself, I argue that the root causes of the destructive character of capitalism are not to be found in growth, but in capitalist accumulation. I present my reading of three of Marx’s most important contributions to our understanding of capitalism and argue for an understanding that puts the emphasis on the separation of the labourers from the means of production, alienated labour, the imperative and the dynamic of competition, and the limited nature of liberal democracy. I argue that growth could be greened in a post-capitalist society if the institutions and dynamics that drive capitalist accumulation were abolished and full democracy was established. The paper ends with a description of how the Zapatista movement in Chiapas and the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil managed to unevenly and contradictorily challenge and subvert some of the social institutions and dynamics that sustain capitalist accumulation

The Regeneration Games: Commodities, Gifts and the Economics of London 2012

This paper considers contradictions between two concurrent and tacit conceptions of the Olympic ‘legacy’, setting out one conception that understands the games and their legacies as gifts alongside and as counterpoint to the prevailing discourse, which conceives Olympic assets as commodities. The paper critically examines press and governmental discussion of legacy, in order to locate these in the context of a wider perspective contrasting ‘gift’ and ‘commodity’ Olympics – setting anthropological conceptions of gift-based sociality as a necessary supplement to contractual and dis-embedded socioeconomic organizational assumptions underpinning the commodity Olympics. Costbenefit planning is central to modern city building and mega-event delivery. The paper considers the insufficiency of this approach as the exclusive paradigm within which to frame and manage a dynamic socio-economic and cultural legacy arising from the 2012 games