Understanding the Diverging Trajectories of the United States and Western Europe: A Neo-Polanyian Analysis

Abstract

This article proposes a neo-Polanyian theoretical framework for understanding the dynamics within contemporary market societies. It uses this framework to analyze the divergence between the United States and other developed societies that has become more pronounced in the first years of the twenty-first century. The argument emphasizes the shifting political alliances of the business community in the United States and suggests that from 1994 onward, business lost power in the right-wing coalition to its religious Right allies. The growing power of a religious-based social movement is a critical ingredient in the unilateralist turn in the Bush Administration’s foreign policy.