Planning for Freedom

Paula Valderrama

International Journal of Political Economy, 2012, vol. 41, issue 4, 88-105

Abstract: In the first part of the paper, the concepts of "planning for freedom" by Friedrich Hayek and Karl Polanyi are compared. Hayek rejects "central planning" and also all kinds of "planning for specific aims," but he defends the principle of "planning for competition" as the main condition of a free society. This principle includes the provision of a pertinent institutional framework and state intervention to create markets in spheres of society previously ruled by nonmarket principles. Polanyi agrees that "planning" is necessary in order to achieve freedom in a complex society, but he criticizes the liberal understanding of freedom as a vain "illusion" and considers the principle of "planning for competition" a political ideal that endangers the cohesion of societies. The starting point of Polanyi's argumentation is Karl Marx's theory of reification, but he goes beyond this, complementing it with the concept of "social freedom" based on knowledge and responsibility. Considering the Latin American experience in recent decades, the paper compares Hayekian and Polanyian concepts of "planning for freedom" in their real political and social dimensions.

Date: 2012
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DOI: 10.2753/IJP0891-1916410406

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