Session 3 - Schumpeter and Polanyi

Question 1

What are the key points of Schumpeter?

Answer 1

• Capitalism as an unstable dynamic system
• key role of the entrepreneur: individual and social roots
• Creative Destruction as a blessing and a curse
• The role of (temporary) monopolies
• Ideal vs. minimalist conception of democracy

Question 2

What are the key points of Polanyi?

Answer 2

• Embeddedness of non-economic and economic institutions
• Questioning the notion of the self-regulating market as an inevitable and taken-for-granted institution
• Crucial role of the state in enforcing the “self-regulating” market
• The double movement
• The role of ideologies in strengthening institutional settings