Instytucjonalizm

This article is devoted to a critical reconstruction of Karl Polanyi's institutional theory and its ethical consequences. Starting with the distinction between the formal (neoclassical) and the substantial (institutional) understanding of the economy, the article proceeds to discuss the main forms of institutional integration of economic life described by Polanyi: reciprocity (symmetry), redistribution (centricity), and exchange (market). In this context, the author examines the connection between the work of Karl Polanyi and the economic anthropology represented by the works of Richard Thurnwald and Bronisław Malinowski. The author argues that three main forms of institutional integration of economic life introduced by Karl Polanyi can be interpreted both as analytical tools to describe institutions and as a grand scheme for the classification of different economic systems. The next section of the article is devoted to a comparison between the institutional theories of Douglass North and Karl Polanyi. For North, the main explanatory category is the idea of transaction costs, whereas for Polanyi the key idea is that of the social embeddedness of the economy. When speaking about the social embeddedness of the economy, Polanyi draws our attention to the inseparable bonds which exist between economic institutions on the one hand, and culture, social structure and politics on the other hand. This theoretical difference between North and Polanyi, the author argues, has important ethical consequences. If Polanyi is right, then institutions are not only alternative solutions to a certain economic problem (i.e. the efficient allocation of resources, the reduction of transaction costs) but above all they are the embodiment of
different conceptions of a good life. In conclusion, the author emphasizes the political dimension of Karl Polanyi’s institutional theory with its intriguing promise of liberating our social and political life from the economic fallacy, that is, from the unfortunate tendency to think about society in market terms.

The paper is an opinion on the academic discussion concerning research on institutions. Its purpose is to describe the complexity of the categories of institutions and the consequences this has on research. The article is divided into three main parts. The first part presents the problem of conceptualizing the category of institution. The second part focuses on the methodical basis of measuring institutions. The third part presents examples of empirical research in this field.

The paper surveys the existing explanations of the current Polish constitutional crisis. For that sake, the paper adopts a socio-legal perspective and introduces the concept of authoritarian situation, interpreted as a complex of social conditions which enable and/or facilitate the authoritarian form of government. As the examined studies prove, such an authoritarian situation has made a constitutional crisis in Poland possible. The paper discusses the explanations which concentrate on various factors conditioning the crisis, such as: class antagonism, the conflict of ideologies, the general legal culture of Polish society, professional legal culture, binding legal rules, and the condition of legal institutions (of law-making, law-applying, and constitutional politics). This discussion allows a conclusion that the causes of the constitutional crisis are multiple and much deeper than the current political conflict.