“Public Policy, Embeddedness and the Double Movement”

The paper deals with the policy implications of Polanyi’s work. It tries to do so by arguing in favor of the theoretical significance of Polanyi’s notion of a double movement. It contends that the notion of double movement does not imply adherence to economic essentialism but depends on the inconsistency between market and non-market values, as well as between their related institutions. The choice of which values and institutions should prevail requires a metric to assess economic performance. The paper argues that the identification of such a metric is not only a means to progressive change but a goal in itself, in that it involves deliberative democracy.