Polányi Károly a vasfüggönyön innen és túl Közpolitikai és rezsimciklusok piaci kapitalista és szovjet típusú társadalmakban

Abstract

Imre Szijártó’s article examines the extent to which the policy and regime-cycles described by Karl Polányi might be present in Soviet-type societies such as the USSR and the People’s Republic of Hungary. In both cases, there is a similar oscillation between reform attempts aimed at economic decentralization and limited markets, on the one hand, and the restoration of centralized command economies, on the other. These economic reform cycles tend to coincide with political reforms towards partial liberalization. The reform cycle eventually threatens the regime’s stability and is either reversed or spirals into a regime cycle. The notable exception to this trend is the Chinese People’s Republic, where the regime secured its political hegemony through the decoupling of political and economic reforms. The article shows that a modified version of the cyclical pattern described by Polányi is present in Soviet-type societies, although in these cases the “counter-movement” is motivated by the regime’s narrow interests rather than society’s general need for self-protection from the destructive tendencies of unconstrained market forces.