Veblen et son actualité : sélection multi-niveaux et darwinisme généralisé

Abstract

This article shows that in Veblen’s evolutionary economics Darwinian principles are used to study socioeconomic evolutionary processes. We emphasize the dual status of institutions which, according to Veblen, are both factors and units of selection. One of the consequences is the existence in Veblen’s evolutionary economics of a coevolution between institutions and habits. Then, we show that Veblen’s work develops insights on the ideas of multilevel selection, i.e. the very possibility that natural selection occurs not exclusively at the individual level and of generalized Darwinism. Both are currently central in evolutionary economics and evolutionary anthropology.

Keywords

• Veblen (Thorstein)
• generalized Darwinism
• multilevel selection
• institutions