Convention Theory and Economics

Summary: This article examines the contribution of the economy of conventions to economic analysis. It is part of current research into economic agents' modes of coordination, based on a critique of standard neoclassical theory. Throughout this research, the main aim of the economy of conventions is to establish a dialectic of the individual and the collective within coordination mechanisms. In so doing, it advances theoretical propositions on the nature of individuals and organizations, as well as on the procedure for transitions from one to the other. The argument defended in this article is that such a research programme is incompatible with the postulate of methodological individualism from which the conventionalists claim to draw their inspiration. But is is not compatible with holism either. It thus implies questioning the basis for the opposition between individualism and holism, that is, the division of labour between the social sciences at the end of the last century. It is therefore not clear how the economy of conventions could renew economic analysis without challenging its foundations.