This paper assesses the contribution of Karl Polanyi, a theorist largely ignored in fascism scholarship, toward understanding fascism’s interwar rise and present-day implications. In exploring Polanyi’s work in The Great Transformation and lesser-known and unpublished writings, a sophisticated and largely original conception of fascism emerges, rooted in the idea of ‘anti-individualism’ as its foundational trait. Polanyi accounts for fascism’s philosophical content, ideological plasticity, political function and societal form, intervening in debates over how to define fascism, its ambiguity with the populist far-right, and on its both economically reactionary and socially revolutionary qualities. Polanyi’s analysis suggests an enduring vulnerability on the part of liberal capitalism to fascist currents as (1) a solution to the instability of the market economy (and broader incompatibility between capitalism and democracy) at the systemic level, and (2) to the crisis of the individual subject on a social and moral level. I end by considering how Polanyi’s theory might be applied to locate current neo-fascist movements and elucidate the sociological problems underpinning their existence .

中文翻译：

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论卡尔·波兰尼著作中法西斯主义的意义和当代意义

本文评估了法西斯主义学术界基本上被忽视的理论家卡尔·波兰尼 (Karl Polanyi) 对理解法西斯主义在两次世界大战之间的兴起和当今影响的贡献。在探索波兰尼在《大变革》和鲜为人知且未发表的著作中的作品时，出现了一种复杂且主要是原创的法西斯主义概念，其根基是“反个人主义”作为其基本特征。波兰尼解释了法西斯主义的哲学内容、意识形态可塑性、政治功能和社会形式，并介入了关于如何定义法西斯主义、其与民粹主义极右翼的模糊性以及其经济反动和社会革命性质的辩论。波兰尼的分析表明，自由资本主义对法西斯潮流的持久脆弱性是（1）在系统层面上解决市场经济不稳定（以及资本主义与民主之间更广泛的不兼容）的解决方案，以及（2）解决经济危机的办法。在社会和道德层面上的个体主体。最后，我会考虑如何应用波兰尼的理论来定位当前的新法西斯运动并阐明支撑其存在的社会学问题。