The Polanyian double movement and the context of international finance: An examination of emerging countermovements.

摘要

This thesis applies Karl Polanyi's concept of the double movement to international financial markets as they have developed from World War II to the present. In the double movement, movements, originating in free market processes, eventually place intolerable stresses on society. In response, countermovements, that develop within society, seek to place constraints on free market processes in order to eliminate the source of these stresses. This thesis examines the countermovement which produced the Bretton Woods system then, it outlines the movement to financial deregulation and liberalization which developed after the failure of Bretton Woods, and, finally, it argues that two different kinds of countermovements are taking shape in the world today. The first is based within the society of international finance; the second is based outside the financial system. The thesis examines these countermovements and focuses on the very different potential outcomes of these two different approaches with respect to the long term sustainability of the international financial system, as well as with respect to issues of social justice.