Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/336251 
Year of Publication: 
2007
Citation: 
[Journal:] Sociológia - Slovak Sociological Review [ISSN:] 1336-8613 [Volume:] 39 [Issue:] 6 [Publisher:] Institute for Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences [Place:] Bratislava [Year:] 2007 [Pages:] 522-534
Publisher: 
Institute for Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava
Abstract: 
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.
Subjects: 
social order
social rules
social contract
market exchange
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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