ABSTRACT
The years spent in Vienna (from 1919 to 1933) were fundamental for Polanyi’s political and theoretical formation. The achievements of the socialist administration, together with the prospect of a radical change in the social system, inspired his ideal of a society based on widespread and conscious participation, in which efficiency and democracy would feed each other. His proximity to Austro-Marxism is, then, evident: for instance, to Otto Bauer’s “functional socialism” based on council democracy, or to Max Adler’s attention to the “socio-economic structure,” that is, to the complex and changing organizational process of society. According to Polanyi, this approach, contrary to both market individualism and statist elitism, would make it possible to overcome the antithesis between individual freedom and inevitable social constraints.
