IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gre/wpaper/2015-36.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Michael Polanyi's Economics: A Strange Rapprochement

Author

Listed:
  • Agnès Festré

    (GREDEG CNRS
    University of Nice Sophia Antipolis)

Abstract

In this paper we provide an analysis of Michael Polanyi's contribution to economics. We stress two major influences on Polanyi's economics: first, Hayek's opposition to central planning and his defence of self-organization as a superior mechanism for coordinating individual plans; second, Keynes' macroeconomic disequilibrium approach to the adjustment of savings and investment that called for government intervention. Polanyi blent these two influences and provided an idiosyncratic synthesis, which is an unfortunately neglected contribution in the field of economics. Moreover, we show that this synthesis is consistent with two important features of Polanyi's intellectual background: on the one hand, liberalism, which entailed two overlapping notions of freedom (traditional private freedom together with public liberty); on the other hand, his humanistic end-oriented type of evolutionism tainted with Catholic ideas. The paper highlights that these two features go hand in hand with Polanyi's view of tacit knowledge, which shapes his original and rich reflection about institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Agnès Festré, 2015. "Michael Polanyi's Economics: A Strange Rapprochement," GREDEG Working Papers 2015-36, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France, revised Oct 2018.
    • Handle: RePEc:gre:wpaper:2015-36
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://195.220.198.217/GREDEG-WP-2015-36.pdf
    File Function: Revised version, 2018-10
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lee C. Spector & T. Norman Van Cott, 2007. "Textbooks and Pure Fiscal Policy: The Neglect of Monetary Basics," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 4(1), pages 60-70, January.
    2. Hayek, F. A., 1991. "The Fatal Conceit," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226320663 edited by Bartley, III, W. W., September.
    3. M. Polanyi, 1940. "Economics by Motion Symbols," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 8(1), pages 1-19.
    4. Agnès Festré & Pierre Garrouste, 2009. "The economic analysis of social norms: A reappraisal of Hayek’s legacy," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 22(3), pages 259-279, September.
    5. Struan Jacobs, 1999. "Michael Polanyi's Theory of Spontaneous Orders," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 111-127, January.
    6. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226320687 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Pierre Garrouste, 1999. "Le problème de la cohérence de l'évolutionnisme hayékien," Post-Print halshs-00274290, HAL.
    8. Hodgson, Geoffrey M., 1991. "Hayek's Theory of Cultural Evolution: An Evaluation in the Light of Vanberg's Critique," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 67-82, April.
    9. Michael Polanyi, 1948. "Planning and Spontaneous Order," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 16(3), pages 237-268, September.
    10. Jacobs, Struan, 1999. "Michael Polanyi's Theory of Spontaneous Orders," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 11(1-2), pages 111-127.
    11. Nicolò De Vecchi, 2003. "The Place of Gestalt Psychology in the Making of Hayek's Thought," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 35(1), pages 135-162, Spring.
    12. Oäžuz, Fuat, 2010. "Hayek on tacit knowledge," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 145-165, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Festré, Agnès, 2021. "Michael Polanyi’s vision of government and economics: Spanning Hayek and Keynes," Journal of Government and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(C).
    2. Agnès Festré, 2019. "Michael Polanyi' Vision of Economics: Spanning Hayek and Keynes," GREDEG Working Papers 2019-41, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    3. Agnès Festré & Pierre Garrouste, 2009. "The economic analysis of social norms: A reappraisal of Hayek’s legacy," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 22(3), pages 259-279, September.
    4. Agnès Festré & Pierre Garrouste, 2008. "L’analyse économique des normes sociales : une réévaluation de l’héritage hayékien," Revue Française d'Économie, Programme National Persée, vol. 22(4), pages 103-137.
    5. Douglas Whitman, 1998. "Hayek contra Pangloss on Evolutionary Systems," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 45-66, March.
    6. Butos William N. & McQuade Thomas J., 2012. "Nonneutralities in Science Funding: Direction, Destabilization, and Distortion," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 18(1), pages 1-28, October.
    7. John Meadowcroft & Mark Pennington, 2008. "Bonding and bridging: Social capital and the communitarian critique of liberal markets," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 21(2), pages 119-133, September.
    8. Klaus Jaffe, 2015. "Agent based simulations visualize Adam Smith's invisible hand by solving Friedrich Hayek's Economic Calculus," Papers 1509.04264, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2015.
    9. Fiori Stefano, 2005. "The emergence of instructions : some open problems in Hayek's theory," CESMEP Working Papers 200504, University of Turin.
    10. Kimbrough, E.O. & Vostroknutov, A., 2012. "Rules, rule-following and cooperation," Research Memorandum 053, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    11. Bigoni, Maria & Camera, Gabriele & Casari, Marco, 2020. "Money is more than memory," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 99-115.
    12. Klaus Jaffé, 2015. "Visualizing the Invisible Hand of Markets: Simulating Complex Dynamic Economic Interactions," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 115-132, April.
    13. Morles, Gustavo, 2010. "The Rhetoric of Economics: Why Words Are Important," MPRA Paper 22821, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised May 2010.
    14. Horst Feldmann, 2009. "The quality of the legal system and labor market performance around the world," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 39-65, August.
    15. Hirokazu Takizawa, 2017. "Masahiko Aoki’s conception of institutions," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 523-540, December.
    16. Kevin Vallier, 2017. "Gaus, Hayek, and the place of civil religion in a free society," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 30(3), pages 327-352, September.
    17. Okruch Stefan, 2001. "Der Richter als Institution einer spontanen Ordnung: Einige kritische Bemerkungen zu einer Zentralfigur in Hayeks Theorie der kulturellen Evolution," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 52(1), pages 131-154, January.
    18. Marciano, Alain, 2009. "Why Hayek is a Darwinian (after all)? Hayek and Darwin on social evolution," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 52-61, July.
    19. Arnaud Lacan, 2022. "Value-Based Governance as a Performance Element in Social and Solidarity Economy Organizations: A French Sustainable Post-Modern Proposal," Post-Print hal-03620280, HAL.
    20. Leiashvily, Paata, 2022. "The Economy as a Nonlinear Complex System: In Search of a New Paradigm," MPRA Paper 113601, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Michael Polanyi; Hayek; Keynes; spontaneous order; State intervention; liberalism; evolutionism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B25 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Austrian; Stockholm School
    • B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gre:wpaper:2015-36. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Patrice Bougette (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/credcfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.