Kornai and Polanyi: Tracing an Intellectual Kinship

Bela Greskovits

Keywords: Kornai, Polanyi, holism, clear types, capitalism, socialism

Abstract: Grounded in a close reading of János Kornai’s and Karl Polanyi’s signature studies, the paper demonstratres that despite the different spatial and time frames of their work, their conceptual frameworks share important similarities. It is argued that such intellectual kinship is rooted in these authors’ holistic research agenda, which tries to grasp the logic of socioeconomic systemic „whole” prior to and as a condition of understanding individual behavior. Methodological holism, the argument goes, helps to explain other shared features of Kornai’s and Polanyi’s research programs. These include, respectively: a) their primary interest in clear or (Weberian ideal) types of the market system and classical socialism versus the different (even secondary) analytic status of unstable „mixed economies” within both the capitalist and socialist type; b) the interdisciplinary orientation of their work; and c) indeed, their essentially political theories of capitalism and socialism. Their holism, however, might be responsible for shared blind spots, too. For example, the focus on the logically coherent clear types might lead to downplaying the superior contribution of volatile hybrids, such as welfare capitalism or market socialism, to the quality of human life.