Suppressing the Double Movement to Secure the Dictatorship of Finance

Karl Polanyi’s vision of the human predicament remains extraordinarily relevant as we face the challenges of the twenty-first century. With the dream of the self-regulating market once again deeply entrenched in the public mind, and with the power of market forces being increasingly enshrined in international law, there is growing evidence to remind us of Polanyi’s warning that the pursuit of this impossible dream can only end in disaster. Because land, labor, and money can never be pure commodities, their increasingly direct subjection to market forces is imposing enormous costs on people, on the environment, and on societies, at the same time as growing economic contradictions and imbalances threaten the internal coherence of the global economic system. But, although the need for change becomes increasingly apparent, the forces of opposition are divided and lacking in focus. And so it is natural, and appropriate, for those who deplore the relentless and remorseless empowerment of markets to see Karl Polanyi’s concept of the “double movement” as a source of hope and inspiration.