John R. Commons and John Dewey Two Complementary Paths for Institutionalism

In this article, we compare the thinking of John Commons with that of John Dewey. The two authors have many points in common around the notion of transaction, the psychology of agents and the question of habit. We show, however, that Dewey’s analysis, which is more comprehensive, questions the role of emotions in the modification of individual habits to a much greater extent than Commons does. Based on Dewey’s original handwritten notes, we show that emotion is at the origin of conflicts within "interest groups" that echo the "going concerns" described by Commons, and that it prevents the emergence of certain forms of social pathology.