INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, I will attempt to explain the role of the concept of democracy in Polanyi’s social philosophy. This task is not so easy, as Polanyi does not provide any systematic analysis of the term. Moreover, Polanyi uses the concept of democracy in narrower and broader meanings at different points. In The Great Transformation, the term democracy mainly denotes existing popular governments of the twentieth century, and it is primarily used to demonstrate the inherent tension between social claims and capitalist market requirements. However, in other (unpublished or less known) texts, Polanyi employs the term in its ideal meaning: democracy is hereby a vision of a future society, in which moral-political values such as freedom, equality and social justice are institutionally guaranteed. Furthermore, this ideal concept of democracy involves not only a political and social transformation but also implies moral progress. The development of democracy is therefore based on the “spiritual ennobling of the masses” as well as the “transformation of souls”, as Polanyi states.

Polanyi is not a utopian thinker, but he firmly believes in the transforming power of ideas and institutions. The awareness that human beings are able to evolve is, for him, not utopian at all, but rather realistic, for the capacity of adapting to new circumstances is, in fact, an essential part of human nature. One of the necessary preconditions of democracy is, therefore, the so-called “believing politics”, that is the political conviction that an adequate institutional framework is able to cause socioeconomic and moral development. Or, the other way round, adequate socioeconomic positions and moral practices enable the perpetuation of a democratically set institutional framework in the long run.

It is this particular aspect of Polanyi’s oeuvre which I shall analyse in the next sections. The aim is to provide a better comprehension of Polanyi’s concept of democracy, in particular, to present and explain his ideal vision of a free democratic society. In the second section, after this introduction, I shall present Polanyi’s view of democracy as a process. The current parliamentary democracies represent an important step towards achieving freedom, especially concerning freedom from absolutism and political totalitarianism.