Economy–society tensions in the Eurozone: the anti-democratic virus revived

This chapter draws on Polanyi’s analysis of the economy-democracy tension to discuss today’s crisis in Greece and the Eurozone. First, some of the economic and social effects of the Greek austerity programme are discussed with reference to his observations on liberal international interventionism in the interwar period. Secondly, the chapter looks at the ways in which democratic outcomes (elections, referenda, parliamentarian decisions, etc.) in Greece and elsewhere were, during different crisis episodes following 2010, put aside in favour of market discipline and austerity doctrines. It is argued that Polanyi’s thesis on the “mutual incompatibility†between capitalism and democracy (the core of what he termed the “anti-democratic virus†) is crucial for understanding today’s crisis and crisis management in the framework of Eurozone’s liberalism.