Abstract

This paper analyses two concepts considered antithetical by Hayek: constructivism and spontaneous order. The thesis is that the spontaneous order theory does not exhaustively explain the change of social systems divergent from market ones. More precisely, Hayek's approach lacks in a theory of history able to explain the persistence of systems which should have been negatively selected but, on the contrary, have survived over time. Finally, a re-reading of Adam Smith shows that, in some specific cases, the constructivist charateristics of an institutional system can emerge in evolutionary terms as an adaptive response to the environment. The anomalous outcome, with respect to Hayek's dichotomy, is not the "Free Society", but a spontaneous order with markedly constructivist characteristics. Hence the proposal to combine the evolutionary and logical-historical-institutional approaches.