Working Paper No. 92, Karl Polanyi, Human Labor, and the Working Class

This inquiry seeks to establish that Karl Polanyi advanced ideas regarding human labor that we could judge as both seminal and enduring. Through examining his famous book, The Great Transformation, we could draw out three interconnected theses central to his critique of market-oriented economies. Firstly, we could emphasize that Polanyi judges labor as a fictitious commodity, emphasizing distinct aspects associable with labor’s emergence during the industrialization of England. In developing his ideas Polanyi draws upon the historical examples of the Speenhamland System and Frederick Engels' accounts of industrial labor that highlighted the destabilizing effects of embedding labor within market mechanisms. Secondly, Polanyi's advances insights into what he identifies as a "Double Movement," denoting a tendency that frames tensions between market expansion and societal resistance as a structural feature that could be identified in capitalist economies. Through examining the historical interplay of forces, Polanyi’s contribution underscores the resilience of communities striving to protect human and natural resources from marketization. Thirdly, this inquiry extends Polanyi's framework to analyze and understand relationships between economic dislocation and the rise of fascism--in past as well as in contemporary times--illuminating how unregulated markets might foster social disruptions that could contribute to conditions fostering authoritarian, fascistic tendencies.