Capitalism’s institutions came to seem natural only after centuries of political legal construction
Evidence
Th is was not always the case. Th e capitalist system was subject to extensive political experimentation and legal formalization during the seventeenth century. By the mideighteenth century, capitalism had been refi ned to the point that its institutions could be considered naturalized. Private property and wage relations were no longer understood as historical institutions that evolved at the expense of other systems; they were the natural order of people and things. As part of this newly entrenched system, politics was understood as separate from the economy. Politics could evolve; the economy was selfgoverning, as God intended. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 97
Categorization
- XREF: Echoes the Polanyian point about the economy being disembedded and naturalized; Mattei’s genealogy of capitalism as political construction underpins her later claim that austerity is likewise constructed and reversible, not natural. — connects to: Private property under capitalism was constructed by state institutions, not spontaneously — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 69; Capitalist subjection now appears natural rather than politically constructed; State intervention to save capitalism exposed its supposedly natural order as political — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 169 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Private property under capitalism was constructed by state institutions, not spontaneously
#corroborates(0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 69 - Capitalist subjection now appears natural rather than politically constructed
#corroborates(0.85) - State intervention to save capitalism exposed its supposedly natural order as political
#exemplifies(0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 169 - Hidden legal structures quietly lock in existing social and economic conditions
#expands(0.80) — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 1340