Neoclassical sociology meets Polanyian political economy

Abstract

Although the region is hardly ever mentioned in The Great Transformation (Polanyi [1944] 1957), perhaps nowhere is this grand vision of greater comparative relevance than in contemporary East Central Europe.1 After the breakdown of the socialist system, neoliberalism scored a major victory in the region. As in nineteenth-century England, the utopia of self-regulating markets guided state elites in their efforts to put in place the institutions of market society. The very intellectuals Karl Polanyi was so much polemicizing against became the acclaimed heroes of reformers. Even if the uncontested neoliberal moment was brief, its socio-economic consequences were so striking that talking about a “new great transformation” does not seem to be exaggerated.