THE ISSUE OF SOCIAL ORDER

Having given a detailed account of the problem-solving model of individual behavior in Part I of this study, we turn now to the issue of social interaction. Our main thesis is that an application of these behavioral assumptions for explanatory purposes of social sciences must proceed in two steps: First, the rise of an institutional framework must be accounted for, before, in a second stage, the social interaction within this institutional framework can be analyzed. The main idea, thus, is that the whole socioeconomic process is structured and directed through the institutions prevailing at a certain time and place. The set of given institutions provide the proper filter through which social and economic relationships must be viewed. Analytically, this two-stage procedure offers a twin solution to the main issue of social theory: the Hobbesian problem of social order. The problem of social order has its roots in the diagnosed self-interested behavior and the resulting potential interindividual conflict. Since the pursuit of self-interest or the striving for utility increase is an anthropological constant, a permanent source of conflict seems to exist in every society. From this social impasse, two exits seem to be possible: The first concerns the possibility of inventing and following social rules that may restrict the self-interested activity of all or some of the members of society. The second is the realization of mutual advantage in exchange processes.