What is Old Should Be New Again: Methodological Individualism, Institutional. Analysis and Spontaneous Order: Published in Sociologia n. 2/2015. Rivista quadrimestrale di Scienze Storiche e Sociali. Virtuosità e corruzione dell'individualismo

In this paper we revisit the case for methodological individualism for the positive analysis of political economy. We argue that the basis of methodological individualism implies neither a necessary commitment to atomistic reductionism in explaining social phenomena nor philosophical individualism resulting in a laissez-faire policy. The point of engaging in spontaneous order analysis on methodologically individualist grounds is not to make precise predictions per se, but instead to render ...