Institutionalism and Liberalism

In social sciences there has been a long debate between the defenders of institutionalism and those of liberalism. The debate has centered around the relationship that exists between the individual (agent) and the social institutions (social structure). In general, liberalism defends that the individual ́s (agent ́s) preferences, choices, and behavior define the social institutions (social structure); while institutionalism argues that the social institutions define the individual ́s preferences, choices, and behavior. Some authors have attempted to solve the debate by proposing a dual feedback loop between the individual and the social institution, in which both mutually define each other. But the solution is not as simple as that. In this book, it is argued that liberalism is fully compatible with institutionalism, although only by following a pragmatic-scientific conception of both. It is ascertained that liberalism is an institution, that was born in a particular historical period of the Western societies. Therefore, since liberalism itself is an institution, it follows that liberalism is compatible with institutionalism. It is argued in here that although it is in general true that institutionalism defends that individual preferences, choices, and behaviors are defined by social institutions; once the society grants the individuals political and economic freedom, these individual preferences, choices, and behaviors become critical in defining the dynamics of the institutional arrangement in question – as liberalism has pointed out.