ABSTRACT
Karl Polanyi (1957)’s metaphor of a “double movement” references a long-term contestation between the forces of laissez-faire capitalism and multiple social (counter) movements. Laissez-faire forces justify an ever-expanding process of commodification by invoking the utopian promise of a fully self-regulating market society free of politics. Diverse social movements spontaneously mobilize in opposition to defend society against the market by establishing institutional protections. Polanyi optimistically predicted that the back-and-forth 99of the double movement would end with the effective defeat of free-market fundamentalism, totalitarianism, and fascism. According to Block and Somers (2014), Polanyi’s predictions came true: during the three decades following the end of the Second World War, a countermovement existed because social democrats were successful in demonstrating that a more just economy that was subjected to political constraints could be highly productive.
