On The Shift Of The Social Structure In The Era Of Market Economy

The vigorous development of market economy has opened a new era. In the context of the era of market economy, any country which wants to realize the modernization can not deviate from the era direction of developing market economy, which leads to a shift of the entire social structure. However, the stretch of this logic does not mean that as long as the development of market economy, it will certainly be able to successfully achieve the transformation of the social structure and realize the modernization. We should pay attention that the society is a complex large-scale system that has a lot of structures. We should carefully explore the transformation law of the entire social structure under the condition of market economy and the affinity between market economy and traditional social structures if we want to realize the modernization. The processes of historical development of world modernization tell us that the transformation of the social structure is not easy. From the developed internally-driven country to the developing externally-driven country, they all have gong through the social disorder and suffering more or less and heavy or light caused by transformation on the road to modernization. This is the major topic of the times that need to be given serious consideration and properly resolved for every county which wants to realize the modernization.It is in such a background that Polanyi completed his greatest book 《The Great Transformation:The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time》 based on his research into the history of modern social transformation of Europe (especially UK). In his book, Polanyi described the suffering of the cultural, social, economic, political and other aspects caused by the great transformation, which deeply rooted in spontaneous regulated market and the movement of market’s disembedment from society, and he raise his view that the counter-movement of making spontaneous regulated market re-embedded in society could eliminate the suffering caused by the great transformation. Polanyi also analyzed Socialism and Fascism of the great transformation process. Polanyi’s "The Great Transformation" theory covers a wide range, he gave deep elaborations and reflections on a series of questions about the basic role of market economy、the impact of the market economy on traditional society、the limitations of market fundamentalism、market’s Non-self-sufficiency、 government intervention and support, and so on. which has important meaning and also won the favor of domestic and foreign academic.However, along with a hot discussion about Polanyi’s thought, perhaps we should maintain a certain degree of vigilance to a variety of "bringing principle" Polanyi’s theory of the double movement is probably only the appearance of market’s disembedment from society, whereas the fundamental cause of disembedment is the lack of structural affinity between market economy and traditional society. On the one hand. Polanyi insisted that counter-movement dominated by government could make the market economy re-embedded in society, while allowing people without fear of power or plan, and trying to create more freedom for all of us with the morality, which toward an ideal utopian kingdom. Although government’s appropriate interventions for social transformation is necessary, such intervention is not a panacea, and even sometimes hinder this process.If we want to achieve the social transformation smoothly, several aspects need to be considered as following:firstly, the highly centralized power is one of the factors that cause transformation suffering, so government must limit her own power if she wants to play an active role; secondly, we should improve the degree of autonomy, enhance citizen’s capacity of self-governance, and cultivate civil society and civic culture, which will create a good social space for modernization; thirdly, achieving the transition of norm system from discipline to both self-discipline and discipline to response to the requirements of market economy; fourthly, effectively playing the rule of law for the prevention of abuse of power to stabilize order and protect human rights. From the perspective of methodology, the smooth transformation of the social structure is a slow diversified developing process, a process of mutual adjustment and mutual accommodation among subsystems of a complex system, and not a process of single-line and the radical type. Therefore, we should use a diversified and conservative perspective to survey social transformation, and pay attention to enhancing the affinity between market economy and traditional society. Only following in this way will we be possible to successfully achieve the great transformation.