ABSTRACT
The chapter examines Polanyi’s views on the League of Nations’ programme “Financial Reconstruction of Austria” (1922), his understanding of it as a form of “authoritarian interventionism”, and his critique of the political efforts during what he calls the “conservative 1920s” to reconstruct the international economy after the First World War with pre-war tools. This chapter argues that the League of Nations’ programme in Austria had an important impact on his work, which is crucial to understanding the roots of his analysis of the Speenhamland system, his critique of the gold standard and liberalism, as well as his theses on the economy-society separation and the rise of fascism in the interwar period. It is further argued that Polanyi’s critique of the League of Nations’ economic intervention is still relevant and serves as a starting point for the critique of today’s technocratic international economic governance and the structural adjustment programmes in various countries, shedding light on their ideological patterns, their historical and institutional background, and the outcomes they produce for democracy and society.
