Thorstein Veblen's theory of institutional change: beyond technological determinism

Olivier Brette

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2003, vol. 10, issue 3, 455-477

Abstract: The article presents a reappraisal of Veblen's theory of institutional change challenging the thesis of technological determinism, supported by some commentators of Veblen. According to this latter interpretation, Veblen would consider institutional change as stemming from an exogenous transformation of the material and technical environment. But such a thesis disregards the significance of cultural determinism in Veblen's system. Taking this into account leads to argue that Veblen analyses institutional change as an emergent effect of the dynamics of interactions between instincts, institutions and the infrastructural conditions. Finally, Veblen's theory of institutional change proves consistent with his research programme, aiming at producing a cumulative and on-teleological theory of institutional evolution, a theory in which behavioural determinants of human beings would be the main explicative variables.

Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0967256032000106698 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:10:y:2003:i:3:p:455-477

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/REJH20

DOI: 10.1080/0967256032000106698

Access Statistics for this article

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought is currently edited by José Luís Cardoso

More articles in The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().