Modern capitalism
There is, for Karl Polanyi, an ongoing political struggle between the ‘dis-embedding’ force of the free market and the ‘re-embedding’ efforts of social protection. It is one very useful way of understanding the politics of modern capitalism.
Polanyi also argues that the market society is not a naturally occurring phenomenon but is a political and social construct. Such an approach puts Karl Polanyi outside the mainstream of political economic debates between a Keynesian approach to economic policy and a Hayekian approach. Ben explains: