ABSTRACT
In this chapter the Fair Trade market is analysed from the perspective of social concept of the market. The common denominator of the many strands of economics underpinning this social approach to the market is the conviction that the economy is “embedded in society”, the functioning of the market should be subordinated to values considered important in a given community, and in consequence that there is a need for a role of the state in the economy going beyond that of a “night watchman”. In view of the purpose of the study as the foundation of analysis, the contributions of Thorsten Veblen and the early institutionalists, Karl Polanyi, representatives of the idea of the welfare state, ordoliberalism, and a wide understood social economics, were taken. From this perspective Fair Trade market may be perceived as a new type of socio-economic institution, a kind of defensive response of society against the “disembedding” of the economy from society or as an example of the third sector. It is argued, why the reality of the Fair Trade market goes beyond this concept as well as why it may be justified to support its development by the state.
