FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE: MARX, WEBER, SCHUMPETER, AND POLANYI

Year 2018, Volume: 4 Issue: 2, 111 - 124, 30.12.2018

Hüseyin Özel

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

Marx, Polanyi, Weber, Schumpeter, Alienation, Iron cage, creative destruction, double movement

Kıyametin Dört Atlısı: Marx, Weber, Schumpeter ve Polanyi

Abstract

Bu makale, kapitalizmin istikrarsız doğasını, Marx, Weber, Schumpeter ve Polanyi'nin çalışmaları üzerinden anlama amacını gütmektedir. Yazıda, bu dört düşünürün, kapitalizme ilişkin benzer vizyonlara sahip oldukları ve kapitalizmin işleyişinin kendi kurumsal yapısının altını oyduğuna inandıkları ileri sürülmektedir. Makale, üç tezi ileri sürmektedir. Bu düşünürler insanlık tarihinin hem kendi kendisini ortaya koyma hem de giderek artan rasyonelleşme ve yabancılaşma yüzünden özgürlük yitimi süreci olduğunu; kapitalizmin hem insanın kendini gerçekleştirme hem de rasyonelleşmesinin koşullarını yarattığını; kapitalizmin başarısızlığının asıl nedeninin onun başarısı olduğunu savunmaktadır.

Keywords

Marx, Polanyi, Weber, Schumpeter, Yabancılaşma, demir kafes, yaratıcı yıkım

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.
• Ertürk, K. (1999). Marx, Postmodernity, and Transformation of the Individual. Review of Radical Political Economics, vol. 31, no. 2, 27-45.
• Faberberg, J. (2003), “Schumpeter and the Revival of Evolutionary Economics: An Appraisal of the Literature,” Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 13: 125-59.
• Foster, J. (2000), “Competitive Selection, Self-organization, and Joseph A. Schumpeter,” Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 10: 311-328.
• Foster, J. and J. S. Metcalfe (2001), Frontiers of Evolutionary Economics, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
• Gerth, H. H. and C. W. Mills (1946), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, New York: Oxford University Press.
• Glasman, M. (1994), “The Great Deformation: Polanyi, Poland and the Terrors of Planned Spontaneity,” New Left Review, 205: 59-87.
• Gould, S. J. and N. Eldredge (1977), "Punctuated Equilibria: The Tempo and Mode of Evolution Reconsidered," Paleobiologyy, 3: 115-151.
• Hirschman, A. O. (1982), “Rival Interpretations of Market Society: Civilizing, Destructive, or Feeble?” Journal of Economic Literature, 20: 1463-84.
• Hunt, E. K. (1979a). “Marx’s Theory of Property and Alienation,” in Parel and Flanagan, eds., Theories of Property: Aristotle to the Present, Ontario: Canada, Wilfred Laurier University Press, pp. 283-319.
• Hunt, E. K. (1979b). “The Importance of Thorstein Veblen for Contemporary Marxism,” Journal of Economic Issues, vol. 13, no. 1, March, pp. 112-40.
• Hunt, E. K. (1986). “Philosophy and economics in the Writings of Karl Marx,” in S. W. Helburn and D. F. Bramhall (eds.), Marx, Schumpeter & Keynes: A Centenary of Dissent, Armonk (NY).: M.E. Sharpe.
• Keklik, M. ( 2003), Schumpeter, Innovation and Growth: Long-cycle Dynamics in the Post-WWII American Manufacturing, Ashgate Publishing.
• Litvan, György (1991), “Democratic and Socialist Values in Karl Polanyi’s Thought,” in Mendell, Marguerite and Daniel Salée, The Legacy of Karl Polanyi: Market, State and Society at the End of the Twentieth Century, New York: St. Martin’s Press, pp. 251-71.
• Löwith, K. (1960), Max Weber and Karl Marx, London: George Allen & Unwin.
• Manicas, P. (1987), A History and Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Oxford: Basic Blackwell.
• Margolis, J. (1989), “The Novelty of Marx’s Theory of Praxis,” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, vol. 19, no. 4, December, pp. 367-88.
• Marx, K. (1877), “Letter from Marx to Editor of the Otecestvenniye Zapisky [Notes on the Fatherland], Marx-Engels Correspondence, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1877/11/russia.htm.
• Marx, K. (1975), Early Writings, translated by R. Livingstone, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
• Marx, K. (1976), Capital (vol. I), translated by B. Fowkes, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
• Marx, Karl (1981), Capital (vol. III), translated by D. Fernbach, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
• McDaniel, B. (2005), “A Contemporary View of Joseph A. Schumpeter’s Theory of the Entrepreneur,” Journal of Economic Issues, 39(2): 485-89.
• Metcalfe, J. S. and J. Foster (2004), Evolution and Economic Complexity, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
• Mommsen, W. (1989), The Political and Social Theory of Max Weber: Collected Essays, Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Özel, Hüseyin (1997) “Reclaiming Humanity: The Social Theory Of Karl Polanyi” Ph. D. dissertation, University of Utah.
• Polanyi, K. (1944), The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, New York: Rinehart & Co., 1944.
• Polanyi, K. (1947), “Our Obsolete Market Mentality: Civilization Must Find a New Thought Pattern” Commentary, vol. III, January-June, pp. 109-117.
• Polanyi, K. (1977), The Livelihood of Man, ed. by Harry W. Pearson, New York; Academic Press.
• Popper, K.R. (1950), The Open Society and Its Enemies, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Reinert, H. and Reinert E. S. (2006), “Creative Destruction in Economics: Nietzsche, Sombart, Schumpeter,” in Backhaus, J. and W. Drechsler (eds.), Friedrich
• Nietzsche 1844-2000: Economy and Society, Series The European Heritage in Economics and the Social Sciences, Springer: 55-86.
• Schumpeter, J. A. (1911), The Theory of Economic Development, (revised edition: 1926) Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1934.
• Schumpeter, J. A. (1928), “The Instability of Capitalism”, Economic Journal, September, pp. 361-386, reprinted in Schumpeter, Essays on Entrepreneurs,
• Innovations, Business Cycles, and the Evolution of Capitalism, Richard Clemence (ed.), New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1989, pp.47-72.
• Schumpeter, J. (1943), Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 5th ed., London: George Allen and Unwin, 1976.
• Schumpeter, J. (1946), “Capitalism”, Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. IV, pp. 801-807, reprinted in Schumpeter, Essays on Entrepreneurs, Innovations, Business Cycles, and the Evolution of Capitalism, Richard Clemence (ed.), New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1989, pp. 189-210.
• Schumpeter, J. (1947), “The Creative Response in Economic History”, Journal of Economic History, Nov., p. 149-159, reprinted in Schumpeter, Essays on Entrepreneurs, Innovations, Business Cycles, and the Evolution of Capitalism, Richard Clemence (ed.), New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1989, pp. 221-231.
• Schumpeter, J. A. (1954), History of Economic Analysis, ed. by E. B. Schumpeter, New York: Oxford University Press.
• Schumpeter, J. A. (2005), “Development,” Journal of Economic Literature, 43: 108-120.
• Shils, E. A. And H. A. Finch (eds.) The Methodology Of The Social Sciences New York: The Free Press.
• Shionoya, Y. (2004), “Scope and Method of Schumpeter’s Universal Social Science: Economic Sociology, Instrumentalism, and Rhetoric,” Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 26(3): 331-47.
• Sweezy, P. (1942), The Theory of Capitalist Development, New York: Monthly Review Press,
• Taylor, C. (1975). Hegel, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Taylor, C. (1979). Hegel and the Modern Society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Taylor, C. (1985). Human Agency and Language, (vol. 1 of) Philosophical Papers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Tönnies, F. (1988), Community and Society (Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft), translated by Charles Loomis, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
• Weber, M. (1927), General Economic History, translated by Frank H. Khight, Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2003.
• Weber, M. (1930), The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, translated by T. Parsons, London: Harper Collins.
• Weber, M. (1947), The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, ed. by T. Parsons, New York: The Free Press.