Tarde oppsed the dominant sociological model of his time, Durkheim's view of society as a collective unity, and instead regarde society as an aggregate of individuals. Based on his view of importance of the individual, Tarde analyzed human society, particular human progress, to be the result of individuals engaged in relational behaviors according to each individual's characteristics.
According to Tarde, the three basic were interrelated, they were invention, imitation, and opposition. Tarde saw "invention" as the ultimate source of all human innovation and progress. The expansion of a given sector of society - economy, science, literature - is a function of the number and quality of creative ideas developed in that sector. Invention finds its source in creative associations in the minds of gifted individuals. Tarde stressed, however, the social factors leading to invention. A necessary rigidity of class lines insulates an elite from the populace; greater communication among creative individuals leads to mutual stimulation; cultural values, such as the adventurousness of the Spanish explorers in the Golden Age, could bring about discovery.
Many inventions, however, are not immediately accepted, hence the need to analyze the process of "imitation" through which certain creative ideas are diffused throughout a society. Tarde codified his ideas in what he called the laws of imitation. For example, the inventions most easily imitated are similar to those already institutionalized, and imitation tends to descend from social superior to social inferior.
The third process, "opposition" takes place when conflicting inventions encounter one another. These oppositions may be associated with social groups - nations, states, regions, social classes - or they may remain largely inside the minds of individuals. Such oppositions can generate invention in a creative mind, beginning again the threefold processes.
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