A second double movement? Polanyi and shifting global opinions on neoliberalism

Abstract

Karl Polanyi's theory of the 'double movement' has gained great currency in recent years to explain the global growth of contemporary social movements resisting neoliberalism. However, there has been no statistical research demonstrating whether these protest movements represent a more general trend of growing discontent with 'disembedding' markets from public control. This article uses questions from the World Values Survey to construct an 'embeddedness' index measuring public opinion on the desired relationship between states and markets. Focusing on public opinion in 20 countries during the 1990s, the analysis poses three questions: First, is there evidence of increasing global support for 're-embedding' markets? Second, how does such opinion vary across regions of the world? Finally, what is the class and gender composition of this latent countermovement? The results provide substantial evidence of an emerging countermovement in public opinion over the 1990s with complex class, gender, and geopolitical variation.

The U.S. Economic Polity, Social Identity, and International Human Rights

“…This is a necessary countermovement because the “goal” of a socially disembedded market is a logical impossibility, or what Polanyi calls a stark utopia. There is tangible evidence that this countermovement is indeed beginning to occur now (Levien and Paret ). In this context, Somers calls for the establishment of a true political economy of moral worth, where we no longer allow market values to dictate who is worthy of access to socioeconomic goods: “We need to determine the social preconditions that will support a political economy that restores moral worth to all humanity” (Somers ).…”

Rethinking the Double Movement: Expanding the Frontiers of Polanyian Analysis in the Global South

“…The existing scholarship provides some clues. Following a soft reading of Polanyi, Levien and Paret () suggest there is a broad desire for countermovements to take hold. Having analysed changes in public opinion in 20 countries, the authors claim there is ‘compelling evidence for the existence of a latent global countermovement, in the form of a widespread increase in desire for re‐embedding the market at a time of global dis‐embedding’ (ibid.…”

“…24. See, for example, Block (2001), Levien and Paret (2012) and Sandbrook (2011). disembedded economy with the capitalist market economy. The possibility of re-embedding under market capitalism is therefore rejected.…”

Emprendimiento social, ¿alternativa o continuidad a las consecuencias del sistema neoliberal al que busca responder?

“…Este posicionamiento hegemónico debería de ser cuestionable principalmente por su fracaso para reconocer el arraigo social de los mercados y la legitimación de la maximización de la riqueza como símbolo de éxito social (Levien & Paret, 2012;Polanyi, 2015). Sin embargo, la aceptación hegemónica ha resultado en una falta de crítica al sistema, principalmente impulsada por actividades de maximización de beneficios implacables y de la lógica del laissez-faire, excluyendo la posibilidad de una crítica significativa y la aparición de alternativas (Fotaki & Prasad, 2015).…”