In search of Karl Polanyi’s international relations theory

Karl Polanyi is principally known as an economic historian and a theorist of international political economy. His theses are commonly encountered in debates concerning globalisation, regionalism, regulation and deregulation, and neoliberalism. But the standard depiction of his ideas is based upon a highly restricted corpus of his work: essentially, his published writings, in English, from the 1940s and 1950s. Drawing upon a broader range of Polanyi’s work in Hungarian, German, and English, this article examines his less well-known analyses of international politics and world order. It sketches the main lineaments of Polanyi’s international thought from the 1910s until the mid-1940s, charting his evolution from Wilsonian liberal, via debates within British pacifism, towards a position close to E. H. Carr’s realism. It reconstructs the dialectic of universalism and regionalism in Polanyi’s prospectus for postwar international order, with a focus upon his theory of ‘tame empires’ and its extension by neo-Polanyian theorists of the ‘new regionalism’ and European integration. It explores the tensions and contradictions in Polanyi’s analysis, and, finally, it hypothesises that the failure of his postwar predictions provides a clue as to why his research on international relations dried up in the 1950s

Karl Polanyi in Budapest: On his political and intellectual formation

Copyright © Archives Européennes de Sociologie 2009.A major thinker and inspiring teacher, Karl Polanyi's contributions have long been influential in a variety of disciplines, notably economic sociology and economic history. Two of his innovations, substantivist economic anthropology and the “double movement thesis,” are recognized as seminal. All of the works for which he is known, however, were written late in life, when in exile, and very little is known of his Hungarian writings, virtually none of which had, until now, been translated. Despite his fame, the biographical literature on Polanyi remains modest: some studies provide invaluable insights, yet all are brief. This article attempts to make some headway in remedying these lacunae. It sketches the contours of that extraordinary historical-geographical conjuncture in which he was formed, and explores his intellectual and political engagements in the Galilei Circle and the Radical Bourgeois Party. It seeks in particular to elucidate the complex roles played by questions of nation, ethnicity and class in the life of the young Karl Polanyi

The iron law of democratic socialism: British and Austrian influences on the young Karl Polanyi

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.A central thesis of Karl Polanyi's The great transformation concerns the tensions between capitalism and democracy: the former embodies the principle of inequality, while democracy represents that of equality. This paper explores the intellectual heritage of this thesis, in the ‘functional theory’ of G.D.H. Cole and Otto Bauer and in the writings of Eduard Bernstein. It scrutinizes Polanyi's relationship with Bernstein's ‘evolutionary socialism’ and charts his ‘double movement’ vis-à-vis Marxist philosophy: in the 1910s he reacted sharply against Marxism's deterministic excesses, but he then, in the 1920s, engaged in sympathetic dialogue with Austro-Marxist thinkers. The latter, like Bernstein, disavowed economic determinism and insisted upon the importance and autonomy of ethics. Yet they simultaneously predicted a law-like expansion of democracy from the political to the economic arena. Analysis of this contradiction provides the basis for a concluding discussion that reconsiders the deterministic threads in Polanyi's oeuvre. Whereas for some Polanyi scholars these attest to his residual attraction to Marxism, I argue that matters are more complex. While Polanyi did repudiate the more rigidly deterministic of currents in Marxist philosophy, those to which he was attracted, notably Bernstein's ‘revision’ and Austro-Marxism, incorporated a deterministic fatalism of their own, in respect of democratization. Herein lies a more convincing explanation of Polanyi's incomplete escape from a deterministic philosophy of history, as exemplified in his masterwork, The great transformation

Social democracy, embeddedness and decommodification: On the conceptual innovations and intellectual affiliations of Karl Polanyi

Of the several debates that revolve around the work of the economic historian and political economist Karl Polanyi, one that continues to exercise minds concerns his analysis of, and political attitudes toward, post-war capitalism and the welfare state. Simplified a little, it is a debate with two sides. To borrow Iván Szelényi's terms, one side constructs a ‘hard’ Karl Polanyi, the other a ‘soft’ one. The former advocated a socialist mixed economy dominated by redistributive mechanisms. He was a radical socialist for whom the market should never be the dominant mechanism of economic coordination. His ‘soft’ alter ego insisted that the market system remain essentially intact but be complemented by redistributive mechanisms. The ‘double movement’ – the central thesis of his ‘Great Transformation’ – acts, in this reading, as a self-correcting mechanism that moderates the excesses of market fundamentalism; its author was positioned within the social-democratic mainstream for which the only realistic desirable goal is a regulated form of capitalism. In terms of textual evidence there is much to be said for both interpretations. In this article I suggest a different approach, one that focuses upon the meaning of Polanyi's concepts in relation to their socio-political and intellectual environment

The Nature of Meaning of Stories in Conversation

Although everyday stories told in the course of ongoing conversations are as open to multiple readings as many literary texts, the participants in the conversational storytelling situation must assign a meaning to a given telling of a story in order to facilitate the absorption of the story into the state of general talk which normally obtains. In the present paper, work done by the American linguistic school of narrative analysis (as begun by Labov and Waletzky and further developed by the author of this paper) is brought together with insights into conversational storytelling from ethno-methodological conversation analysts (Sacks, Jefferson, etc.) The meaning of a given telling of a story is shown to derive from both the structure of the story as told and the process of interpretation which goes on in the conversation after the telling. Special attention is paid to the «next story» which can follow the telling of a «first story» in a conversation. It is argued that the next story is crucially constrained by the first story, while the first story is assigned its meaning partially from the topic of the following one

To Mel Watkins

A tremendous loss to the Canadian Left

THE REGULATION OF INTERNATIONAL MARKETS: THE UNRESOLVED TENSION BETWEEN NATIONAL STATES AND TRANSNATIONAL ACCUMULATION

Summary This article depicts the rules and institutions which have attempted to regulate world commerce and investments since World War II. So far the national state has been the political arena for playing out the tension (identified by Polanyi) between the self regulating market, and movements for self?protection against its consequences. In the context of transnational economic restructuring, regulation of capital faces a dilemma. National states cannot regulate their national economies because of capital flight. Yet international institutions inherited from the postwar settlement depend on dominant US economic power, and its responsible use. The dominant response to instability has been to strengthen those powers of international institutions relevant to the short?term interests of private capital. This intensifies disorder. An alternative is implicit in the many movements which are arising for self?protection of human communities and their natural habitats. In an irreversibly integrated world economy, local and national institutions will have to find ways to federate into higher and more encompassing levels of political coordination. Resumé Le règlement des marchés internationaux: la tension non résolue entre les états?nations et l'accumulation transnationale Le présent article décrit les régies et les institutions qui ont tenté de régler le commerce et les investissements mondiaux depuis la Deuxième guerre mondiale. Jusqu'à présent, l'état?nation a servi de scène sur laquelle se sont jouées les tensions (identifiées par Polanyi) entre, d'une part, le marché autorégulateur et, de l'autre, les mouvances d'autoprotection contre celui?ci. Dans le context de la restructuration transnationale, le règlement?du capital s'affronte à un dilemme. En raison de l'exode des capitaux, les états?nations se trouvent dans l'incapacité de contrôler leurs économies nationales. Or les institutions internationales issues des accords d'après?guerre dépendent de la dominance du pouvoir économique des Etats?Unis, et du déploiement responsable de ce pouvoir. Face à l'instabilité, la réponse la plus favorisée a été de renforcer les pouvoirs des institutions internationales qui ont trait aux intérêts du capital privé au court terme. Ce phénomène intensifie le désordre. Une alternative est implicite dans les nombreaux mouvements qui se soulèvent afin d'assurer l'autoprotection des communautés humaines, et la préservation de leurs habitats naturels. Dans une économie mondiale désormais intégrée, les institutions locales et nationales devront trouver des moyens pour se fédérer si elles veulent obtenir des niveaux de coordination politique à la fois plus importants et de plus grande envergure. Resumen La regulacion de mercados internacionales: tensón sin resolver entre los estados naciónales y la acumulación trasnacional El artículo describe las normas e instituciones que han intentado regular el comercio mundial y las inversiones desde el fin de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Hasta el momento el estado nacional ha sido el escenario político para expresar la tensión (identificada por Polanyi) entre el mercado auto?regulatorio, y los movimientos de auto protección en contra de sus consecuencias. En el contexto de la reestructuración económica trasnacional, la regulación del capital se encuentra en un dilema. Los países no pueden regular sus economías nacionales a causa de la fuga de capitales. Sin embargo las instituciones internacionales heredadas de los convenios de posguerra dependen del poder económico dominante de EE. UU., y de su uso responsable. La reacción predominante contra la inestabilidad ha sido reforzar esos poderes de las instituciones internacionales que son pertinentes a los intereses a corto plazo del capital privado. Esto intensifica el desorden. Sin embargo, se vislumbra una alternativa para la autoproteccón de comunidades humanas y sus habitats naturales. En una economía internacional irreversiblemente integrada, las instituciones locales y nacionales deberán encontrar formas de federarse dentro de niveles más elevados y comprehensivos de coordinación política

Rethinking Polanyi’s concept of tacit knowledge: From personal knowing to imagined institutions

Half a century after Michael Polanyi conceptualised ‘the tacit component’ in personal knowing, management studies has reinvented ‘tacit knowledge’—albeit in ways that squander the advantages of Polanyi’s insights and ignore his faith in ‘spiritual reality’. While tacit knowing challenged the absurdities of sheer objectivity, expressed in a ‘perfect language’, it fused rational knowing, based on personal experience, with mystical speculation about an un-experienced ‘external reality’. Faith alone saved Polanyi’s model from solipsism. But Ernst von Glasersfeld’s radical constructivism provides scope to rethink personal tacit knowing with regard to ‘other people’ and the intersubjectively viable construction of ‘experiential reality’. By separating tacit knowing from Polanyi’s metaphysical realism and drawing on Benedict Anderson’s concept of ‘imagined communities’, it is possible to conceptualise ‘imagined institutions’ as the tacit dimension of power that shapes human interaction. Whereas Douglass North claimed institutions could be reduced to rules, imagined institutions are known in ways we cannot tell

Pinpointing dynamic coupling in enzymes for efficient drug design

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze almost every chemical reaction in living systems, achieving rate enhancements of up to 21 orders of magnitude relative to the uncatalyzed reactions. However, despite a century of intense investigation, the biophysical basis of the enormous catalytic power of enzymes is not completely understood. Enzymes are not only central to living systems, but also to many industrial processes such as the production of food, textiles, detergents, pharmaceuticals and other chemicals where environmentally friendly, green methods are of ever increasing importance. Because of their central role for life, enzymes are key drug targets and enzyme inhibition is a central strategy in the design of new drugs. Acetylsalicylic acid, azidothymidine, acyclovir, allopurinol, chloramphenicol, exemestane, fosfomycin, isoniazid, methotrexate, profens, proguanil, statins, thiouracil and warfarin are but a small subset of approved drug substances that are used in the clinic to treat, among others, pain, fever, inflammation, malaria, cancer, HIV, bacterial and viral infections, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and heart disease, through the inhibition of key enzymes