ABSTRACT
According to Adam Smith, plural and market relationships make citizens mutually independent. However, in order to gain such independence, the stability of individual existence must be protected similarly to social plurality. In this sense, Smith’s concept of “reciprocal independence” had to be combined with a more accurate reflection on the underlying institutional structures and forms that interpersonal relationships took in a given social context. As per Smith’s perspective, independence acquired thanks to economic relationships based on mutual advantages represents the most important achievement of modernity. From Smith’s point of view, independence from others is the result of multiplying human relationships. The sentiments need to be reinforced by a daily experience of unity, an experience that, as Jean Charles Leonard Sismondi states in History, has to be built upon reciprocal relationships in order for it not to turn into dependence or despotism.
