Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T09:21:50.796Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Elements, origins and future of Great Transformations: Eastern Europe and global capitalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Hubert Gabrisch
Hubert Gabrisch*
Affiliation:
Wiesbaden Institute for Law and Economics, Germany
*
Hubert Gabrisch, Wiesbaden Institute for Law and Economics, Lerchenweg 14, 65232 Taunusstein, Germany. Email: h.gabrisch@wile-institute.eu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay analyses the relationship of two ‘Great Transformations’: the first from socialism to capitalism, more specifically in Eastern Europe in the 1990s, and the second from regulated to unregulated capitalism in the global economy since the 1980s, with respect to their common origins, elements and social results. Applying Karl Polanyi’s double-movement concept, it is concluded that these two, in essence neoliberal, transformations have led to societies being deeply divided economically, socially and culturally. Moreover, the self-protection of transformation losers is generating adverse political outcomes on a global scale. For both reasons, the outcomes of neoliberal transformations are jeopardising also the viability of the European Union, which was initially built on the basis of a regulated capitalism. The future of the global economy and also of the European Union depends on how the conflicts between the deepening of unregulated globalisation, national sovereignty and democratic politics can be solved.

Keywords

B25B52P17Eastern Europeglobal capitalismGreat TransformationKarl Polanyineoliberalism
Type
Original Articles
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 31 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Capitalism after Communism: Europe & the World 1989 - 2019 , June 2020 , pp. 172 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arrow, KJ (2000) Economic transition: speed and scope. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 156(1): 9–18.Google Scholar
Bank for International Settlement (2015) BIS quarterly review: June 2015: Table: 19. Available at: https://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qt1506.htmGoogle Scholar
Bhaduri, A, Łaski, K (1997) Lessons to be drawn from main mistakes in the transition strategy. In: Zeccini, S (ed.) Lessons from the Economic Transition: Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s. Dordrecht; Boston, MA; London: Kluwer, pp. 103–123.Google Scholar
Block, F (2001 [1944]) Introduction to the Great Transformation. In: Polanyi, K (ed.) The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, pp. xviii–xxix.Google Scholar
Brus, W (1993) The bane of reforming the socialist economic system. BNL Quarterly Review 187: 364–405.Google Scholar
Brus, W, Łaski, K (1989) From Marx to the Market: Socialism in Search of an Economic System. Oxford: Oxford University Press ( German, ed. (1990) Von Marx zum Markt. Marburg: Metropolis).Google Scholar
Bundesagentur für Arbeit (n.d.). Available at: https://statistik.arbeitsagentur.de/nn_31892/SiteGlobals/Forms/Suche/serviceSuche_Form.html?allOfTheseWords=stille+reserve&x=0&y=0&pageLocale=de&view=processForm (accessed 21 October 2018).Google Scholar
Bundesministerium für Arbeit (1950) Entwicklung und Ursachen der Arbeitslosigkeit in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (1946–1950). Bonn: Bundesministerium für Arbeit.Google Scholar
Burnham, P (2017) Neo-liberalism, crisis and the contradictions of depoliticization. Participatione e Conflitto 19(2). Available at: http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/paco/article/view/17729 (accessed 26 January 2020).Google Scholar
Collins, S, Rodrik, D (1991) Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the World Economy. Washington, DC: Institute for International Economics.Google Scholar
EU Commission (2019) Fiscal rules database. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/fiscal-rules-database_en (accessed 31 May 2019).Google Scholar
Eucken, W (1948a) On the theory of the centrally administered economy: an analysis of the German experiment: part I (trans. TW, Hutchison). Economica 15(58): 79–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eucken, W (1948b) On the theory of the centrally administered economy: an analysis of the German experiment: part II (trans. TW, Hutchison). Economica 15(59): 173–193.Google Scholar
Furman, J (2016) The new view of fiscal policy and its application. VOX CEPR Policy Portal. Available at: https://voxeu.org/article/new-view-fiscal-policy-and-its-application (accessed 2 February 2019).Google Scholar
Gabrisch, H, Hölscher, J (2006) The Successes and Failures of Economic Transition: The European Experience. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guizzo, D (2019) Discursive strategies in the Keynes-Hayek debate: building a liberal critique. Contributions to Political Economy 38(1): 12–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hausmann, R, Rodrik, D, Velasco, A (2006) Getting the diagnosis right. Finance and Development 43(1). Available at: www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2006/03/hausmann.htm (accessed 5 March 2014).Google Scholar
Hayek, FA (ed.) (1975 [1935]) Collectivist Economic Planning. London: George Routledge and Sons (Reprinted Clifton, NJ: Augustus M. Kelley, pp. 87–130).Google Scholar
Hölscher, J, Howard-Jones, P (2018) Brexit: the lure of neoliberal thought collective. Bournemouth Accounting, Finance & Economic Series No. 26, Bournemouth University, Poole.Google Scholar
Kalecki, M (1943) Political aspects of full employment. Political Quarterly 14(4): 322–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keynes, JM (1926) The End of Laissez-faire. Hogarth Press. Available at: http://www.panarchy.org/keynes/laissezfaire.1926.html (accessed 29 April 2019).Google Scholar
Klaus, V (1989) Socialist economies, economic reforms and economists: reflections of a Czechoslovak economist. Communist Economies 1(1): 89–96.Google Scholar
Kornai, J (1997) Adjustment without recession: a case study of Hungarian stabilization. In: Zeccini, S (ed.) Lessons from the Economic Transition: Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s. Dordrecht; Boston, MA; London: Kluwer, pp. 123–153.Google Scholar
Lange, O (1936) On the economic theory of socialism: part I. Review of Economic Studies 4(1): 53–71.Google Scholar
Lange, O (1937) On the economic theory of socialism: part II. Review of Economic Studies 4(2): 123–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lange, O (1970) Introduction to Economic Cybernetics. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Łaski, K (1992) Transition from command to market economies in Central and Eastern Europe: first experiences and questions. In: Richter, S (ed.) The Transition from Command to Market Economies in East-central Europe (WIIW Yearbook IV). Boulder, CO: Westview, pp. 33–55.Google Scholar
Lerner, AP (1936) A note on socialist economies. Review of Economic Studies 4(1): 72–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Münkler, H (2017) Der Dreißigjährige Krieg: Europäische Katastrophe, deutsches Trauma 1618-1648. Berlin: Rowohlt.Google Scholar
Piketty, T (2014) Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Polanyi, K (2001 [1944]) The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Robbins, L (1935) An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. 2nd ed. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Rodrik, D (2016) Brexit and the globalization trilemma. In: Dani Rodrik’s weblog. Available at: https://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2016/06/brexit-and-the-globalization-trilemma.html (accessed 4 May 2019).Google Scholar
Rüstow, A (1932) Freie Wirtschaft – Starker Staat (Die staatspolitischen Voraussetzungen des wirtschaftspolitischen Liberalismus). Diskussionsrede auf der Tagung des Vereins für Sozialpolitik, Dresden 28.9.1932. In: Boese, F (ed.) Deutschland und die Weltkrise. Schriften des Vereins für Sozialpolitik, Bd. 187. pp. 62–69. München, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot.Google Scholar
Stiglitz, JE (2001 [1944]) Foreword. In: Polanyi, K (ed.) The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, pp. vii–xvii.Google Scholar
Thatcher, M (2013) Margaret Thatcher: A life in quotes: key comments from Britain’s first female prime minister. The Guardian, 8 April. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-quotes (accessed 25 January 2020).Google Scholar
Von Mises, L (1975 [1935]) Economic calculation in the socialist commonwealth. In Hayek, FA (ed.) Collectivist Economic Planning. Reprinted. Clifton, NJ: Augustus M. Kelley, pp. 87–130.Google Scholar
Weber, IM (2018) China and neoliberalism: moving beyond the China is/is not neoliberal dichotomy. In: Cooper, M, Cahill, D, Konings, M (eds) SAGE Handbook of Neoliberalism. London: SAGE, pp. 219–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, J (2004) The Washington consensus as policy prescription for development. Available at: https://piie.com/publications/papers/williamson0204.pdf (accessed 27 April 2019).Google Scholar
World Bank (2016). Available at: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD (accessed 3 June 2016).Google Scholar
Zaman, A (2016) The methodology of Polanyi’s Great Transformation. Economic Thought 5(1): 44–63.Google Scholar