Freedom and Regulation in a Market Society: Family Resemblances in Durkheim and Polanyi

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to make a critical revision of Émile Durkheim and Karl Polanyi’s works focusing in the convergencies that both of them express when they notice and, in part anticipate, the limits of the market to maintain a social order. Though they are set in different historical contexts and they express diverging theoretical traditions, both of them share a critical opinion against the supposed self-sufficiency of the self-regulated markets, showing the dilemmas of a market society. With some differences, they agree to suggest that freedom does not equal desregulation and that the statement regarding individuality must not be confused with absence of regulation. Their works can be read as attempts to base the need for an instance of coordination, suggesting a connection between the individuals, the market and the state which still seems valuable in order to consider this complex link in the present.