ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the centrality of the “property in the person” in the dualities and contradictions of capitalism. It discusses the institutional provisions which manage these contradictions, along with their limits. The concept of “the individual” is endogenous, rather than universal or self-evident, according to the methodology of historical institutionalism. The individual is the presumed actor who develops the value of his “own property” in competition with other individuals. The structure of material infrastructure plays a role in individuation. The individual house and car were protected private spaces, yet reliant on large-scale public goods funded by the state. In spite of the enormous investment of the federal government in infrastructure for water and transportation in California, it became the center of the movement to cut taxes and protect private property. Writing in 1986, Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis expected that norms of democracy in the public sphere may begin to influence the private sphere towards workplace democracy.
