ECONOMY AS A SOCIAL INSTITUTION

Around 1800 the concept of 'economy' became extremely important in the context of theoretical reflection in the West and also acquired a new meaning. After long denoted mostly the management of Home Affairs, the term economy began to be used for a chunk of the company. This conceptual change depended on a plurality of reasons. At that time, for example, thanks to the contribution of Adam Smith and other scholars, was born the modern economics. At the same time also it started out the process of industrialization, first in England and then in the rest of Europe and the United States. In increasingly secular society that began to emerge it was unleashed soon a lively debate about which was the role that this new sector in the economy, in fact was called to play in society. According to the economic sector must be left completely free and now he never had to limit its action. Others, however, were of the view that the economy should be subject to the company and / or the state. In this article we will only occasionally directly political aspects of this debate, although it must be borne in mind that the debate on the relationship between economy and society that will participate politicians or sociologists often involves an ideological component. The problem we face, however, is another: how we should understand the relationship between economy and society from the point of view of the social sciences? The answer to this question will be given with the submission of the thesis that several economists and sociologists have put forward in this regard by the end of the eighteenth century to the present day.

In the social sciences debate on economy and society it is essentially rotated around three main locations. According to the first economy it is a universe unto itself in society and can be analyzed only in purely economic or social. The company is considered alien to the economic and, at most, to the economist plays a purely marginal interest. For the second position the economy is an integral part of society and operates as the rest of society. Few scholars have supported this view with conviction, because it involves, ultimately, a total rejection of the economic standard. Some scholars, however, share this view because it is radically opposed to the dominant economic theory. The third point of view, finally, has a greater number of members, as it is less extremist; according to this view, the most important parts of the economy should be studied using the normal instruments (not social) of economic thought, but, as in the economic sector there are also social institutions, these should be analyzed in terms sociological. Many economists and other members of the social sciences have fluctuated between these different positions, even within the same work.

References:
http://thecollaboratory.wikidot.com/thompson-social-institutions
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Sociology/Economy
http://www.e-ir.info/2012/09/19/the-importance-of-institutions-to-economic-development/