L'origine costitutiva dei corpi intermedi, tra economia, politica e selezione naturale

The main thesis of this work is that Intermediate bodies as well as most interest groups have their origin in ancestral strategic coalitions. More precisely their constitutive origins are stated in the leveling coalitions that ethologists and primatologists describe as normal behaviour in anthropoid ape groups. The aim of this kind of coalitions is to prevent overbearing excesses of the higher ranking members of the bunch, without aiming to take over. In so doing they participate to maintain peace inside the bunch and assure coordination between their members. In human societies they play a similar defensive role, achieving mediated solutions (for example as regards tax burden) trying to influence the decisions of those in power. Many of these ancestral schemes seem to be behind our social psychology, which remain essentially a groupist one, inherently polarized between the in-group and the out-group – a trend that apply particularly to our political dimension; that thing that provides order and predictability in social relationships. This point of view is an alternative to the one based on the so called ‘Economic Man’ (homo oeconomicus). At the beginning of the paper we will recreate the cultural history of modern individualism; we will then trace back our groupist tendency connecting it with multilevel selection hypothesis. The reading grid based on leveling coalitions will then be applied to medieval guilds, highlighting the consistency with the latest historiographical interpretations.