Preview

Summary-Response on Polanyi’s “The Great Transformation

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
822 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary-Response on Polanyi’s “The Great Transformation
We have just finished reading several chapters on Karl Polanyi’s, “The Great Transformation,” which is truly crucial to understanding how and why we need to restructure economic education today. The central thesis of this book was a historical description of the emergence of the market economy as a competitor to the traditional economy. Although he has not given a clear legacy to a separate tradition of economics and economic history, the importance of Polanyi’s thoughts to heretical economic ideas should not be underestimated. Unfortunately, the book is quite complex and Polanyi’s arguments remain unfamiliar to majority of economists, he includes far too much history and politics. Polanyi understood economics more realistically than most economists, and understood that economics does not stand alone, but exists within a large social institutional context. He highlights the rise and fall of the market economy and the factors that influenced them, including the great Industrial Revolution. In particular, Polanyi analyzes the deficiencies of the self-regulating market and and the social consequences of an unrestrained capitalist market. Polanyi to formulate the opposition between a self-regulating economy and an economy whose process of production and distribution is socially controlled and thus it allows to include the opposition between the market economy and the socialist economy as different systems of production and distribution. Polanyi shows the very visible hand of the government interfering in all aspects of society in order to insure market dominance. Now this point is especially relevant to us today. During the last several decades, we have witnessed a resurgence of economic liberalism. We were told once again that the market could self-regulate, and once again it has come crushing down, Polanyi is not anti-market, he believes that they are indeed beneficial, but they are not truly self-regulating, and more importantly the ethos of the market should

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The movement in the direction of a market-based system with freely determined prices, competition, profits, private ownership, and other features of capitalism is not simple. Discuss some of the challenges associated with an economy transitioning from socialism to capitalism.…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gke Task 4

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Steven (2009, December 14). Capitalism and communism - Gilles Dauv | libcom.org. libcom.org. Retrieved January 5, 2013, from http://libcom.org/library/capitalism-communism-gilles-dauve…

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    sosc1140 essay 2

    • 1294 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Capitalism is the most productive economic system that ever exists. Its emergence and development have brought an amazingly rapid increase in productivity. However, the fact that cyclical capitalist economic crisis arises proves that capitalism does not make sense because it has contradictions in it. In this article, I am going to provide explanations about what Engels means by historical materialism, the fundamental contradiction in capitalism and two other contradictions that arise from this contradiction. And I will conclude by explaining Engels’ s anticipation of the eventual outcome of the historical development of capitalism. My main argument is that the fundamental contradiction in capitalism is the contradiction between social production and individual appropriation which leads to the contradiction between the systematic organization of production inside factories and the disorganization of production in society as a whole and the contradiction between the mode of production and the mode of exchange, and the contradiction between market and production (Frederick 295; Frederick 299; Frederick 302).…

    • 1294 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Introduction The text by Carol Sheriff encircles on Erie Canal during the prewar period in a much different way than other scholars on the subject. Erie Canal is located in New York that at first had a length of approximately 584 kilometers or 363 miles, that is, from Albany in New York to Buffalo at Lake Erie. It was built to aid transportation from New York to the Great Lakes. Its construction was between 1817 and 1825. It was such an economic spurring platform for New York.…

    • 1491 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    By saying that "the economic process...is embedded in noneconomic institutions," Karl Polanyi means that even though there is no such term as “economy“ in noneconomic institutions, it still has economic activities, but only much harder to identify. That only the concepts of economy and not the term “economy” (which was coined only 200 years ago by a group of French thinkers) itself are being used in these institutions. The goal in these institutions is not to get wealthier, but to achieve other things, like stronger relations and kinship. The economic activities are embedded in the society but not for profitable economic reasons or a measure of wealth, like they are in the modern society. For example, how economic elements are set in use in different social relationships of a non-economic character like it is in the Arapesh society.…

    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “One of the most powerful laws in the universe is the law of unintended consequences” (Levitt, S. 2009) This is one of the primarily premises that the book establishes, with an extraordinary sense of humor and interesting data, Steven and Stephen set us in the real economics world, in which the common factors that all the teachers show to their students are applied in such a way that the real job is getting done. The way the authors write all the interesting facts of today´s modern life, including correct and simple explanations, so that anyone can understand all the topics without having doubts of the concepts and of the more difficult topics of economy. The examples they give provide us a fun way of learning, and of expanding our thoughts far beyond the theory of economics. Throughout the book, we are exposed to historical, political and sociocultural aspects of the example given, not only to give the reader a complete background, but also to make the reader get involved into the facts that are exposed. This book also give us a chance to be reflexive about almost every aspect that we normally do not bother to think of, for instance, the ordinary task of donate money, rather than be a real help to others, people use donations to make them feel more comfortable with themselves, for recognition from the local newspaper or from that cute girl that asked us a coin for any purpose.…

    • 1834 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the book, Economy and State, authors try to connect reader with the inner workings the state and it’s relation to the economy. Unlike most authors, Bandeji and Sowers do not argue for minimal government intervention in economic affairs, but they discuss the relationship of the state and the economy. They argue that the state and the economy forged many types of relationships, which may end in different results.…

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Karl Marx Vs Adam Smith

    • 1892 Words
    • 8 Pages

    During the 18th and 19th centuries, there were a series of intense discussions by the great thinkers of the time, on how the economy should be molded going forward. The two most prominent of these intellectuals were Karl Marx and Adam Smith. Combined they shared a vision of an emerging social system, which they had foreseen; and what we now know as capitalism. Marx called his theory “the capitalist mode of production”, while Smith referred to the idea as the “society of perfect liberty”. There are several similarities and differences between the two social systems, and through these ideas, we can find how the economic system we use today came to exist.…

    • 1892 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Different social systems are built on different sets of values and perceptions of the world. Political science offers some means of comparison between capitalism and socialism and the various ways, in which the two ideologies are applied around the world (for some practical implementations of the two systems of government deviate substantially from their theoretical foundations). History offers insight into societies that have adhered to both ideologies with various degree of success and allows one to make conclusions based on past events. However, neither discipline can give a definite determination regarding the superiority of one social order over the other. An argument from the point of view of ethics must consider the conclusions and consideration of both history and political theory to determine the moral specifics of both capitalism and socialism. The decision which one is superior depends on one’s views on what is moral and what is not.…

    • 1668 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    “What Money can’t Buy” by Michael Sandel discusses the limits of the Market and the morals which accompany it. It is powerfully related to his ideas of Communitarianism which cannot be argued but it both helps him and condemns him in a way. I will be discussing both in the content below.…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Fernand Braudel, a modern French historian, sees three intertwined but distinguishable strands of history. They are: material life, economic life, and capitalism. Material life, he says, sets “the limits of the possible”. Material life means the routines of daily work, the everyday tasks that we perform so that we can sustain ourselves. It covers the means by which we travel to work, the efforts we perform there, the products we make in use, etc. Without including knowing how material life has changed, we would not be able to understand the economic transformation of America. Economic life mainly encompasses market activity, which includes the jostling of buyers and sellers on the market square, the complex acts of offer and bid, purchase and sale that make possible the essential social relationship of exchange. The strand of our overall theme is the evolution of our involvement with the market, both as buyers of goods and as suppliers of our energies. A vital part of the economic transformation of America is the enlargement of economic life. The third strand is capitalism itself. The best way we can gain an understanding about the nature of capitalism is if we focus our attention on the three elements that it introduces into material and economic life: capital, the market mechanism, and the division of economic and political activity.…

    • 7707 Words
    • 31 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    I have dealt with both role conflict an role strain throughout my life and never knew the distinction between the two until recently. A role strain is when one or more expectations from a single status becomes too much for that person to handle and they are not capable to complete them. A role strain I've experienced is with my status as a employee as a File Clerk; it requires me to pick up case files for cases that are settled and no longer active, the files are entered into a data storage system and placed on a work order to be picked up and shipped off for long term storage. It takes any where from 20 minutes to 3 hours to put one case into the data system, the case files are placed in a bankers box and an average case is about six boxes.…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The debate over the superior socioeconomic system has gone on for over 100 years, and there seems to never be any consensus. In fact, the debate has become so heated that wars have been fought in order to prove supremacy—i.e. the Cold War fought primarily between the USA and the USSR. On one end of this debate lies the communist party that’s goal is to eliminate the gap between the rich and the poor by creating social and economic equality between classes. The opposing party is the capitalists, who strive to for free market economy and individual enterprise. Socialism is the middle ground as it is a mix of both private corporations and government run facilities.…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Economic Theory

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The global economy recovers from the crisis that engulfed global financial markets in the course of 2008. The effort to stave off total economic collapse has left governments burdened with massive debt that will take years of painful effort to work off. The policy prescriptions of market liberalism, including deregulation, privatization and regressive tax reform, are being advanced with seemingly undiminished confidence.Economics, as a field, got in trouble because economists were seduced by the vision of a perfect, frictionless market system. If the profession is to redeem itself, it will have to reconcile itself to a less alluring vision — that of a market economy that has many virtues but that is also shot through with flaws and frictions. The good news is that we don’t have to start from scratch. The Crisis between 2006 - 2102 basis in the microeconomics theory is a global effect. The…

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    COMM 331

    • 2269 Words
    • 5 Pages

    As stated by Bittman (2015), the political economy has underlined what the government found complicated in making decision upon agriculture and economics matters where they are complex soft systems. We have no idea whether they are on track of working or under maintenance. Principles of human right and well-being could be employed to organize a range of big issues such as labor, race, food, immigration and education.…

    • 2269 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Best Essays