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Abstract

There are good reasons for preferring the concept of capitalism over that
of ‘‘market economy.’’ A capitalist economy is one that depends on the
commercialization-through-monetarization of ever more social relations.
The result is disequilibrium as the normal condition of a society placed
under pressure by its ‘‘economy’’ for continuous reorganization in line
with a need for ongoing capital accumulation. A capitalist society enlists
the possessive individualism of its members as its principal vehicle of
social progress, measured as an increase in wealth-as-money. While
Polanyian theory has pointed out important features of advanced
capitalist societies, there is no need to sacrifice core Marxian concepts
for it. Marxian theory helps avoid the trap of political voluntarism, which
stipulates a priority of politics in the capitalist political economy or a
fundamental difference between ‘‘varieties’’ of capitalism. Moreover,
rather than regarding the capitalist economy as by definition ‘‘always
embedded,’’ political-economic theory must allow for a self-destructive,
and indeed socially destructive, tendency of capitalist political economies to ‘‘disembed’’ themselves by struggling free from social controls and
dictating to social life the imperatives of market efficiency and a marketconforming
distribution of life chances.