The Evolution of Macroeconomics in Light of the Distributive Conflict: an Analysis Based on Karl Polanyi’s Concept of Double Movement

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the “evolution” of macroeconomics, both in terms of theory and economic practices, based on the dynamics of distributive conflict. In this sense, it is argued that the major inflections of macroeconomics (from nineteenth century liberalism to post-war Keynesianism, and from there to neoliberalism from the 1970s onwards) took place in contexts of distributive imbalance in favor of one or the other social class. Finally, the article makes some conjectures about the future of macroeconomics in the context of the current global pandemic.