Adam Smith’s Model of the Origins and Emergence of Institutions: The Modern Findings of the Classical Approach

Norman Clark, in the June 1988 issue of this journal, explained the open systems principle of equifinality, which states that it is possible to reach the same final state from differing initial conditions and by a variety of paths [Clark 1988]. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that the utilization of the arguments and technical analysis of methodological individualism contained in the classical tradition will lead to the conclusion that institutions are insolubly connected with acting individuals-and to thereby establish the primacy of the analysis of institutionalists and instrumentalists. Reaching the state of institutionalism through this path is different from following the path established by Thorstein Veblen, John Commons, Clarence Ayres and John Dewey. However it is important to realize, as is concluded below, that