The Institution,the Economy and the Market: Karl Polanyi's Institutional Thought for Economists |
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Authors: | Jerome Maucourant Sebastien Plociniczak |
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Institution: | 1. Université Jean Monnet, UMR 5206 “Triangle” , Saint-Etienne , France maucourant.jerome@wanadoo.fr;3. Université de Valenciennes, Institut du Développement et de la Prospective (IDP) , Valenciennes , France |
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Abstract: | This paper aims to clarify the logical structure of Karl Polanyi's concept of institution, especially with regard to his most important contribution to political economy—the conception of self-regulating markets as institutions. Although Polanyi did not provide a well-developed concept of institution, this article argues that such a concept exists in his work. Moreover, there is in Polanyi's work a sophisticated institutionalist account of the self-regulating market that has been largely overlooked as Polanyi does not present it explicitly. Analyzing the economy as an institutionalized process, as Polanyi does, reveals that the market is neither a natural nor a spontaneous phenomenon—a conclusion that runs counter to conventional economic thinking. Polanyi's approach enables us to view capitalism (the ‘market society’ in Polanyi's language) through a highly specific cultural fact: the fiction of the self-regulating market. This institutional perspective needs to be reassessed beyond new-institutionalist theoretical constructions. |
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