ON THE (NON-)CONTRACTUAL NATURE OF RULES: CONTRASTING DURKHEIM AND BUCHANAN

• Authors: Valentinov V.
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The paper examines the viewpoints of James Buchanan and Emile Durkheim on the question whether the maintenance of social order can be understood as resulting from contractual exchange of rational individuals. It is argued that neither Buchanan's normative individualism requires considering the maintenance of social order as an outcome of an exchange process, nor Durkheim's notion of moral integration requires embracing methodological holism. On this basis, the paper proposes an individualist understanding of social order as collective self-sufficiency rather than exchange. The broader implication of this argument is that institutions must be generally viewed as based on variable combinations of self-sufficiency and exchange as alternative mechanisms of gratifying human wants.

Keywords

EN

BUCHANAN JAMES; DURKHEIM EMILE; SOCIAL CONTRACT; SOCIAL ORDER; SOCIAL RULES

Discipline

• SOCIOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Sociology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Sociológia (Sociology)
• Year: 2007
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 522-534
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Valentinov V.

• V. Valentinov, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe, Theodor-Lieser-Str. 2, D-06120 Halle (Saale), Germany

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

08SKAAAA03727484