Commodification, Poor Laws, and Polanyi’s Critique
The Commodification of Labor and Poor Law Reform
The full commodification of labor came after land and money. Key historical points include:
- Tudors and the Stuarts
- Speenhamland, 1795
- 1834 Poor Law Amendment
The Poor Law Amendment represents the starting point of modern capitalism.
Societal Effects of Commodification Policies
The commodification of land, labor, and money caused severe hardships for large groups of people. Polanyi argues that extreme degrees of deregulation and privatization will always threaten society and provoke social protest.
Impact of Land Commodification
Enclosures increased the value of land, but:
- Left the common laborer utterly dependent on employment.
- Conversion of formerly common land to pasturage reduced employment and damaged the land through erosion.
Impact of Labor Commodification
Poor Law reform in the decade following 1834 brought about the transition to a market society. The Act abolished the “right to live.” People could move into workhouses, but these were so degrading and full of destitute people that many poor families refused, became homeless, and starved.
Impact of Money Commodification
Why did the supposedly self-adjusting mechanism of the Gold Standard fail? Polanyi suggests that “central banking and the management of the monetary system were needed to keep manufactures and other productive enterprises safe from the harm involved in the commodity fiction as applied to money.”
Polanyi: Socialism vs. Capitalism
- Capitalism: A utopian vision the state is trying to achieve.
- Socialism: The tendency inherent in an industrial civilization to transcend the self-regulating market by consciously subordinating it to a democratic society.
The Process of Industrialization
In developed economies, industrialization results in:
- An increase in social welfare as a result of an increase in the material resources of the people (material, psychosocial).
- A significant improvement in the average educational level of citizens (intellectual autonomy).
- A growing social complexity that improves relational opportunities (social autonomy).
Understanding Post-Materialist Values
Materialist values are related to survival, security, economic development, community, etc. Post-materialist values are related to general and universal values and concepts such as freedom of expression, solidarity, and equality.
Measuring Post-Materialist Values
The primary measurement tool of materialist and post-materialist values is the World Values Survey (WVS). The WVS covers almost 75% of the world population. The WVS measures the attitudes and preferences of people by asking about lifestyles, possible states of the world, and ways to solve problems that affect society in particular and the world in general.
Features of the Post-Industrial Society
As the term has been used, a few common themes have begun to emerge:
- The economy undergoes a transition from the production of goods to the provision of services.
- Knowledge becomes a valued form of capital (e.g., the knowledge produced through the Human Genome Project).
- Producing ideas is the main way to grow the economy.