The embrace of authoritarianism is an expected reflex reaction to the cruelty of free markets. At least that’s what Brandeis University professor Robert Kuttner postulates in his book, “Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism?” Caleb Crain writes for the New Yorker. Kuttner’s argument is grounded in Hungarian intellectual Karl Polanyi’s theory from the 1930s that essentially argues that capital markets can be “cruel” and inflict enough pain on workers to push them towards embracing fascism in hopes of cutting out the negative elements of capitalism.

Choosing fascism? “In Polanyi’s opinion, whenever the profit-making impulse becomes deadlocked with the need to shield people from its harmful side effects, voters are tempted by the ‘fascist solution’: reconcile profit and security by forfeiting civic freedom.” While contemporary politics are similar to those of Polanyi’s time in some aspects, Kuttner says “today’s political impasse is different from that of the nineteen-thirties. It is being caused not by a stalemate between leftist governments and a reactionary business sector but by leftists in government who have reneged on their principles.” This distress, Kuttner says, is setting the stage for renewed vulnerability to the fascist solution.