FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE: MARX, WEBER, SCHUMPETER, AND POLANYI
Abstract
This paper aims at understanding the unstable character of the capitalist society, by drawing upon some respective work of Marx, Weber, Schumpeter, and Polanyi. All four, it is argued, share similar visions towards capitalism and contend that the working of capitalism undermines its own institutional structure. The paper advances three theses: all four thinkers conceive human history as displaying both human self expression and the loss of freedom due to increasing rationalization and alienation; according to them capitalism creates both the preconditions of self-realization and rationalization at once; and they also believe that the very success of capitalism is the basic cause of its failure.
Keywords
References
- Berlin, I. (1963) Karl Marx: His Life and Environment, New York: Time Incorporated.
- Billig, M. S. (2000), “Institutions and Culture: Neo-Weberian Economic Anthropology,” Journal of Economic Issues, 34(4): 771-88.
- Bottomore, T. (1985), Theories of Modern Capitalism, London: Unwin Hyman.
- Catephores, G. (1994), “The Imperious Austrian: Schumpeter as Bourgeois Marxist,” New Left Review, 205: 3-30.
- Colletti, L. (1973), Marxism and Hegel, translated by L. Garner, London: New Left Books.
- Dahms, H. F. (1995) “From Creative Action to the Social Rationalization of the Economy: Joseph A. Schumpeter’s Social Theory,” Sociological Theory, 13(1): 1-13.
- Ebner, A. (2006), “Schumpeterian Entrepreneurship Revisited: Historical Specificity and the Phases of Capitalist Development,” Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 28(3): 315-32.
- Elliott, J. (1980), “Marx and Schumpeter on Capitalism’s Creative Destruction: A Comparative Restatement,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 95(3), August: 45-67.
Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
-
Journal Section
Research Article
Authors
Hüseyin Özel
*
Türkiye
Publication Date
December 30, 2018
Submission Date
October 14, 2018
Acceptance Date
December 31, 2018
Published in Issue
Year 2018 Volume: 4 Number: 2