ABSTRACT
All social sciences have in common their preoccupation with human interaction. Mainstream economics has traditionally preferred to assume that such interaction is essentially harmonious, if not because of the intrinsic nature of human beings, at least by virtue of their subservience to the Invisible Hand. Generally, institutionalists, following Charles Darwin, have always assumed that human interaction is essentially based on conflict; therefore, the pursuit of power by participants in the economy—the ability to prevail over others—must always be assumed. 1 Coping with this pursuit must, therefore, be a major concern of any social science.
