Compulsive Shift or Cultural Blind Drift? Literary Theory, Critical Rhetoric, Feminist Theory and Institutional Economics

Abstract

Clearly one of the central organizing foci of Marc Tool’s contributions to institutional thought is the thesis put forward in his 1980 Presidential address to the Association for Institutional Thought where he argued that a compulsive shift towards institutional analysis was underway. He argued that the reactionary counter revolution going on at that time would not overtake this tendency (Tool 1986, p. 181-202). I think it is relatively safe to say that Tool’s observation was correct, but that some qualification and elaboration is required. The qualification is as follows—the move towards institutional analysis has occurred, but it has not been a move to institutional economics. Since Tool’s address the movement away from mainstream orthodoxy has increased. However the dominant tendency remains away from (or beyond) orthodoxy, not towards institutionalism. This tendency can be demonstrated by: 1) The increased interest in heterodox traditions, the proliferation (or fragmentation) of heterodox positions, and the creation of new proto-schools of thought—all building on themes recognizable within institutionalism. This increased interest in heterodoxy manifests itself in the formation of new scholarly organizations, the founding of new journals, and expanded discussions of institutionalist themes in existing journals within heterodoxy. 2) The serious reconsideration of the methodology of positive economics within the mainstream and the widespread consternation about and interest in reopening the question of methodology by mainstream and heterodox methodologists, historians of thought, economic historians and those interested in the philosophical foundations of economics. 3) The increased interest by orthodox economists in the creation of social institutions, the processes of institutional adjustment, and the evolution of economic systems. This interest can be seen by the growth of such sub-fields as public choice, transactions cost analysis, law and economics, and property rights theorizing increasingly identified as the “new institutionalism.” 4) The increased interest in conservative alternatives to orthodox economics such as Austrian economics.