Karl Polanyi,the New Deal and the Green New Deal

Abstract

In this paper, I present an analysis of those aspects of Karl Polanyi's social and political thought that relate to environmentalism and ‘green’ politics today. I discuss whether or not he prefigured the degrowth movement, before focusing on his understanding of the New Deal (1933–1939). At the time of writing, the prospect appears likely of a return, at a global scale, of economic slump, mass unemployment and ecological crisis, the background conditions to which Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal was responding on the national scale. The paper concludes by drawing lessons from this comparison for possible Green New Deals.

Keywords

Degrowth embeddedness Green New Deal Karl Polanyi New Deal

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adler

and Wargan

. 2019. ‘Stop polluting our Green New Deal’. Jacobin, 11 June. Online at: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/06/green-new-deal-europe-capitalism (accessed 2 January 2020).

Ajl

2020. ‘Clean tech versus a people's Green New Deal’. Online at: www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/magazine/entry/clean-tech-versus-a-peoples-green-new-deal/ (accessed 20 May 2020).

Allwood

2020. ‘Absolute zero’. The Ecologist, 24 March. Online at: https://thee-cologist.org/2020/mar/24/absolute-zero (accessed 20 May 2020).

Aronoff

, Battistoni

, Cohen

D.A.

and Riofrancos

. 2019. A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal. London: Verso.

Berger

2020. ‘The man who saw the pandemic coming: Will the world now wake up to the global threat of zoonotic diseases?’ Nautilus, 12 March. Online at: http://nautil.us/issue/83/intelligence/the-man-who-saw-the-pandemic-coming (accessed 20 April 2020).

Bhattacharya

and Dale

. 2020. ‘Covid Capitalism: General tendencies, possible “leaps”’. Spectre Journal, 23 April. Online at: https://spectrejournal.com/covid-capitalism/ (accessed 2 May 2020).

Block

1977. The Origins of International Economic Disorder: A Study of United States International Monetary Policy from World War II to the Present. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Crossref.

Boffey

2020. ‘Big pharma rejected EU plan to fast-track vaccines in 2017’. The Guardian, 25 May. Online at: www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/25/exclusive-big-pharma-rejected-eu-plan-to-fast-track-vaccines-in-2017 (accessed 25 May 2020).

Borgwardt

2005. A New Deal for the World: America's Vision for Human Rights. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

10.

Carton

2014. ‘Environmental protection as market pathology?: Carbon trading and the dialectics of the “double movement”’. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 32(6): 1002–1018. Crossref.

11.

Chase-Dunn

and Lawrence

. 2011. ‘The next three futures, part one: Looming crises of global inequality, ecological degradation, and a failed system of global governance’. Global Society 25(2): 137–153. Crossref.

12.

Dale

2008. “‘Green Shift”: An analysis of corporate responses to climate change’. International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy 3(2): 134–155.

13.

Dale

2009. ‘Karl Polanyi in Budapest: On his political and intellectual formation’. Archives Européennes de Sociologie [European Journal of Sociology] 50(1): 97–130.

14.

Dale

2012. ‘Adam Smith's green thumb and Malthus' three horsemen: Cautionary tales from classical political economy’. Journal of Economic Issues 46(4): 859–879. Crossref.

15.

Dale

2015. ‘Origins and delusions of green growth’. International Socialist Review, Issue 97. Online at: https://isreview.org/issue/97/origins-and-delusions-green-growth (accessed 20 May 2020).

16.

Dale

2016a. ‘In search of Karl Polanyi's international relations theory’. Review of International Studies 42(3): 401–424.

17.

Dale

2016b. Karl Polanyi: A Life on the Left. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

18.

Dale

2016c. Reconstructing Karl Polanyi: Excavation and Critique. London: Pluto Press.

19.

Dale

2017. ‘After 1917: Civil war and “modernising counter-revolution”’. rs21, 26 October. Online at: www.rs21.org.uk/2017/10/26/revolutonary-reflections-after-1917-civil-war-and-modernising-counter-revolution/ (accessed 20 May 2020).

20.

Dale

2019. ‘Degrowth and the Green New Deal’. The Ecologist, 28 October. Online at: https://theecologist.org/2019/oct/28/degrowth-and-green-new-deal (accessed 20 May 2020).

21.

Davis

2007. ‘Home front ecology’. Resilience, 10 July. Online at: www.resilience.org/stories/2007-07-10/what-our-grandparents-can-teach-us-about-saving-world/ (accessed 9 April 2018).

22.

Demaria

, Schneider

, Sekulova

and Martinez-Alier

. 2013. ‘What is degrowth? From an activist slogan to a social movement’. Environmental Values 22(2): 191–215. Crossref.

23.

Doward

2020. ‘Government under fire for failing to act on pandemic recommendations’. The Guardian, 19 April. Online at: www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/19/government-under-fre-failing-pandemic-recommendations (accessed 20 May 2020).

24.

Dunne

2020. ‘Could climate change and biodiversity loss raise the risk of pandemics?’ Carbon Brief, 15 May. Online at: www.carbonbrief.org/q-and-a-could-climate-change-and-biodiversity-loss-raise-the-risk-of-pandemics (accessed 20 May 2020).

25.

Board

Editorial

. 2020. ‘The virus fight opens up a climate opportunity’. Financial Times, 15 May. Online at: www.ft.com/content/eb683e52-95d0-11ea-abcd-371e24b679ed (accessed 20 May 2020).

26.

Eversberg

and Schmelzer

. 2018. ‘The degrowth spectrum: Convergence and divergence within a diverse and conflictual alliance’. Environmental Values 27: 245–267. Crossref.

27.

Farand

2020. ‘South Korea to implement Green New Deal after ruling party election win’. Climate Change News, 16 April. Online at: www.climatechangenews.com/2020/04/16/south-korea-implement-green-new-deal-ruling-party-election-win/ (accessed 20 May 2020).

28.

Friedman

2007. ‘The power of green’. New York Times, 15 April. Online at: www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/opinion/15iht-web-0415edgreen-full.5291830.html (accessed 7 November 2018).

29.

Garfield

2013. In Search of the Amazon: Brazil, the United States, and the Nature of a Region. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

30.

Gilbert

2015. Planning Democracy: Agrarian Intellectuals and the Intended New Deal. Newhaven, CT: Yale University Press. Crossref.

31.

Gräser

2019. ‘Historicizing Karl Polanyi’. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie [Austrian Journal of Sociology] 44: 129–141. Crossref.

32.

Hart-Landsberg

2020a. ‘The Green New Deal and the state: Lessons from World War II’. Monthly Review, 8 April. Online at: https://mronline.org/2020/04/08/the-green-new-deal-and-the-state-lessons-from-world-war-ii-part-i/ (accessed 20 May 2020).

33.

Hart-Landsberg

2020b. ‘What the New Deal can teach us about winning a Green New Deal’. Class, Race and Corporate Power 8(1): 6.

34.

Holleman

2018. Dust Bowls of Empire: Imperialism, Environmental Politics, and the Injustice of ‘Green’ Capitalism. Newhaven, CT: Yale University Press. Crossref.

35.

Holmes

2018. Polanyi in Times of Populism: Vision and Contradiction in the History of Economic Ideas. London: Routledge. Crossref.

36.

Katznelson

2014. Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time. New York, NY: Liveright.

37.

Kerl

2020. ‘Chicago's unemployed rebellion’. Rampant, 18 May. Online at: https://rampantmag.com/2020/05/18/chicagos-unemployed-rebellion/ (accessed 20 May 2020).

38.

Klein

2019. On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal. London: Penguin.

39.

Kolinjivadi

and Kothari

. 2020. ‘No harm here is still harm there: The Green New Deal and the Global South’. Jamhoor, 20 May. Online at: www.jamhoor.org/read/2020/5/20/no-harm-here-is-still-harm-there-looking-at-the-green-new-deal-from-the-global-south (accessed 20 May 2020).

40.

Lacher

1999. ‘Embedded Liberalism, disembedded markets: Reconceptualising the pax Americana’. New Political Economy 4(3): 343–360. Crossref.

41.

Lacher

2006. Beyond Globalization: Capitalism, Territoriality and the International Relations of Modernity. London: Routledge. Crossref.

42.

Lacher

2017. ‘Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, and the American exception’. Manuscript shared with the author.

43.

Lacher

2020. ‘Multilinear trajectories: Polanyi, The Great Transformation, and the American exception’. Online at: www.researchgate.net/publication/335877603_%27%27Multilinear_Trajectories_Polanyi_The_Great_Transformation_and_the_American_Exception%27_in_Radhika_Desai_and_Kari_Polanyi_Levitt_Eds_Karl_Polanyi_and_21st_Century_Capitalism_2020_pp_164-88 (accessed 20 May 2020).

44.

Le Quéré

, Jackson

R.B.

, Jones

M.W.

, . 2020. ‘Temporary reduction in daily global CO2 emissions during the COVID-19 forced confinement’. Nature Climate Change 10: 647–653.

45.

Meyer

2019. ‘A centuries-old idea could revolutionize climate policy’. The Atlantic, 19 February. Online at: www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/green-new-deal-economic-principles/582943/ (accessed 20 May 2020).

46.

Milman

2020. ‘Pandemic side-effects offer glimpse of alternative future on Earth Day 2020’. The Guardian, 22 April. Online at: www.theguardian.com/environ-ment/2020/apr/22/environment-pandemic-side-effects-earth-day-coronavirus (accessed 20 May 2020).

47.

Muraca

2013. ‘Décroissance: A project for a radical transformation of society’. Environmental Values 22(2): 147–169.

48.

Patel

K.K.

2016. The New Deal: A Global History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

49.

Pettifor

2019. The Case for the Green New Deal. London: Verso.

50.

Polanyi

1922. ‘Titáni publicisztika [Titanic journalism]’. Translated by Fabry

. In Dale

, (ed.) Karl Polanyi: The Hungarian Writings, pp. 151–154. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

51.

Polanyi

[1933] 2002. ‘Roosevelt zerschlägt die Konferenz [Roosevelt destroys the conference]’. In Cangiani

and Thomasberger

(eds), Chronik der großen Transformation [Chronicle of The Great Transformation], Band 1, pp. 178–183. Marburg, Germany: Metropolis.

52.

Polanyi

1937. Polanyi to Toni Stolper, 24 June. [Letter]. Held at: Karl Polanyi Archive, Container 47, Folder 8. Montreal, QC: Concordia University.

53.

Polanyi

1940. Polanyi to Ilona Duczynska, 21 November. [Letter]. Held at: Karl Polanyi Archive, Container 59, Folder 7. Montreal, QC: Concordia University.

54.

Polanyi

K. early

1940s. ‘Book outline and introduction to Tame Empires’. [Manuscript]. Held at: Karl Polanyi Archive, Container 20, Folder 2. Montreal, QC: Concordia University.

55.

Polanyi

1945. ‘Universal capitalism or regional planning?’ London Quarterly of World Affairs 10(3): 86–91.

56.

Polanyi

[1944] 2001. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

57.

Polanyi

1923a. ‘Van-e Mosszulban petroleum? [Is there oil in Mosul?]’ Bécsi Magyar Ujság, February. [Article]. Held at: Karl Polanyi Archive, Container 1, Folder 51. Montreal, QC: Concordia University.

58.

Polanyi

1923b. ‘A félelem ellen [Against fear]’. Bécsi Magyar Ujság, July. [Article]. Held at: Karl Polanyi Archive, Container 1, Folder 51. Montreal, QC: Concordia University.

59.

Polanyi

n.d.(a). Bibliography: 1920–1960. [Manuscript]. Held at: Karl Polanyi Archive, Container 29, Folder 8. Montreal, QC: Concordia University.

60.

Polanyi

n.d.(b). ‘Friends of democratic Hungary: America 1943’. [Lecture]. Held at: Karl Polanyi Archive, Container 18, Folder 25. Montreal, QC: Concordia University.

61.

Polanyi

n.d.(c). ‘In post-Pearl Harbour America I learnt to know democracy at its best’. [Interview]. Held at: Karl Polanyi Archive, Container 30, Folder 1. Montreal, QC: Concordia University.

62.

Polanyi

K. c

. 1936. ‘Outline, political and economic experiments in our time: U.S.A and New Deal’. [Manuscript]. Held at: Karl Polanyi Archive, Container 1, Folder 51. Montreal, QC: Concordia University.

63.

Scammell

2009. Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic. New York, NY: Random House.

64.

Schoppek

D.E.

2020. ‘How far is degrowth a really revolutionary counter movement to neoliberalism?’ Environmental Values 29(2): 131–151. Crossref.

65.

Scott

2017. Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States. Newhaven, CT: Yale University Press.

66.

Shorrock

2020. ‘Electoral triumph spurs Green New Deal in South Korea’. The Nation, 1 May. Online at: www.thenation.com/article/world/south-korea-elections-climate/ (accessed 20 May 2020).

67.

Standaert

2020. ‘China relaxes environmental rules to curb virus's economic hit’. Bloomberg Law, 9 March. Online at: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environ-ment-and-energy/china-relaxes-environmental-rules-to-curb-viruss-economic-hit (accessed 20 May 2020).

68.

Stuart

, Gunderson

and Peterson

. 2019. ‘Climate change and the Polanyian counter-movement: Carbon markets or degrowth?’ New Political Economy 24(1): 89–102. Crossref.

69.

Vetter

2020. ‘South Korea embraces EU-style Green Deal for COVID-19 recovery’. Forbes, 16 April. Online at: www.forbes.com/sites/davidrvetter/2020/04/16/south-korea-embraces-eu-style-green-deal-for-covid-19-recovery/#1a83a2f65611 (accessed 20 May 2020).

70.

Wallace

1944. Democracy Reborn. [Manuscript]. Online at: https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.77313/2015.77313.Democracy-Reborn_djvu.txt (accessed 20 May 2020).

71.

Wallace

2016. Big Farms Make Big Flu: Dispatches on Influenza, Agribusiness, and the Nature of Science. New York, NY: New York University Press.