Karl Polanyi's Critique Of Capitalism

Karl Polanyi researched on the process of economic system by comparing market and society with a historical perspective,he claimed that people's economic activity embedded in their society relationships.Capitalist market economy,which demands that society should submit to market,leads to the game between society and market.Social protection mechanism emerges and protects people and society from the ravages of markets,just because the labor force,land and the commercialization of currency are not only the requirements of market-oriented economy but also the beginning of human misery.Polanyi believed that self-regulatory market was a Utopia,and it wouldn't happen that market dis-embedded from society.The development of economic liberalism and social protection never stopped their bi-directional motion and triggered social catastrophes of contemporary capitalism.The collapse of civilization in the 19th century was due to the damage of the international system and the social disasters caused by the unrestrained expansion of the market economy.For Polanyi,solutions to the issues discussed above would not be solved without government intervention,which inevitably made free-market governed by society.Democratic and democratic governance,which could antagonize totalitarianism and the relentless expansion of market,should be fought for from struggle.Meanwhile,Polanyi held that community of human society as well as freedom and democracy could solve the crisis of society,it is that he found the cultural and moral problems of capitalist market economy.The research methods of holism and historicism that Polanyi used to analyze the development of capitalistic market economy provide us with a new perspective to interpret and criticize capitalism.All his concepts and methods are still of great theoretical value and practical significance to us.