Institution facts for kids

An institution is like a set of rules and ways of doing things that people create together. These rules and customs help shape how people act in a group or society. Think of them as the "building blocks" of how we live together.

Institutions are usually long-lasting and continue over time. Things like laws, everyday customs, and shared beliefs are all examples of institutions. Some are very formal, like a country's laws, while others are informal, like shaking hands when you meet someone.

Scientists who study society, like those in political science, anthropology, economics, and sociology, often study institutions. They want to understand how these rules and customs are made, how they work, and how they change over time. Even basic things like the family or money are considered big, important institutions because they include many smaller rules and ways of behaving.

What is an Institution?

There are many ways to define an institution, but they all share a common idea: they are about rules and patterns of behavior that last.

Some experts, like Wolfgang Streeck and Kathleen Thelen, say institutions are "building blocks of social order." This means they are shared expectations about how people should act or how certain activities should be done. They often involve rights and duties for people. For example, when you go to school, there are rules about how students and teachers should behave, and everyone expects these rules to be followed.

Another way to think about it, as explained by Jack Knight, is that institutions are "a set of rules that structure social interactions." This means everyone in a group or society knows and understands these rules.

Douglass North, an economist, said that institutions are "humanly devised constraints that shape interaction." He believed they are super important for how well an economy performs because they affect the costs of buying, selling, and making things. He also pointed out that even small historical details can really change how an institution works.

Think of it this way: if you're playing a game, the rules of the game are like institutions. They tell you what you can and can't do, and they shape how the game is played. Everyone knows the rules, and they expect others to follow them.

Examples of Institutions

Institutions are all around us! Here are some common examples:

• Family: Your family is a big part of your life. It's where you first learn about cultural values and how to act towards others. You learn from your parents, siblings, and other relatives.
• Religion: For many, religion is a strong institution that shapes their beliefs and how they live. It often teaches people about their culture and how to be part of a community.
• Peer groups: These are groups of friends or people your age who share similar interests. In these groups, you learn to form relationships and make decisions on your own, away from adult supervision. The influence of friends is strongest during your teenage years.
• Economic systems: These are the rules and ways a society produces, distributes, and consumes goods and services. They affect what people buy, how they value things, and how they participate in the economy.
• Legal systems: This includes all the laws and rules that a society has, and how they are enforced. Parents and friends often influence how children view and obey laws.
• Penal systems: This refers to prisons and other systems that deal with people who break laws. In these places, prisoners and guards create their own communities and rules. It's a very different environment from regular society.
• Language: The language you speak and the culture you live in affect how you socialize. For example, some children from immigrant families learn to speak and act differently depending on whether they are at home or with friends at school.
• Mass media: This includes things like TV, radio, newspapers, and the internet. Media shares information with many people at once. It can teach us about what is considered normal or acceptable behavior by showing what happens to people who act in certain ways.
• Educational institutions: These are schools, from preschool to universities. They teach us knowledge and skills, and they also teach us how to behave in a structured environment.
• Research communities: These are groups of people, often in universities or research institutes, who work together to discover new knowledge.
• Medicine: This includes hospitals and other places that provide health care. They have rules and procedures to help people stay healthy or get better when they are sick.
• Military: These are armed forces that protect a country. They have very strict rules and a strong culture that shapes the behavior of soldiers.
• Industry: This includes businesses and corporations that make and sell products or services. They have rules about how work is done, how money is handled, and how people interact in the workplace.
• Civil society or NGOs: These are groups like charitable organizations, advocacy groups, or political parties that work for specific causes or to help people. They are not part of the government.
• Gender: The way society views and defines gender constantly affects how other institutions, like family or even race, work.
• Video games: Even video games can be seen as social institutions! They create communities and influence how players interact, sometimes even reflecting or shaping ideas about gender or aggression.

In a broader sense:

• Art and culture: These are the ways people express themselves and share their traditions, like music, paintings, and stories. They shape how we see the world.
• The nation-state: This refers to a country and its government. It includes all the formal institutions like schools, police, and legal systems. However, some institutions, like religion and family, existed long before modern countries did.

How Social Scientists See Institutions

When we look at institutions, they often seem like a natural part of life that never changes. But social scientists study them to show that institutions are actually "social constructions." This means they are created by people at a certain time, in a certain culture, and for a specific society. They are the result of many people's choices, even if no single person planned them exactly as they turned out.

Sociologists often look at institutions as groups of connected social roles and expectations. For example, the institution of marriage and family helps meet basic needs like having children and caring for them. It does this by setting out what is expected of a husband/father, wife/mother, or child.

A big question for social scientists is how institutions relate to human nature. Some believe institutions naturally grow from how humans are. Others think institutions are artificial and can be redesigned by experts to better serve human needs. For example, some feminists criticize traditional marriage because they see it as part of an old system where men had more power.

Economists use something called game theory to study institutions. One way they use it is to see how institutions survive and change. For instance, when people walk past each other in a hallway, they need a custom to avoid bumping into each other, like always keeping to the right. This kind of custom can lead to formal rules, like driving on the right side of the road.

Another way economists use game theory is to see how institutions affect behavior. In this view, institutions set the rules of the "game" that people play. For example, a market where an auctioneer sells goods at a certain price is an institution that affects how buyers and sellers behave.

Political scientists also study how institutions affect behavior. They look at how formal rules, like laws, guide what people do. For example, Douglass North studied how institutions in different countries affected their economic growth. He found that strong institutions in wealthy countries helped increase productivity, while weak institutions in poorer countries could slow it down.

More recently, scholars like Steven Levitsky and María Victoria Murillo have looked at the "strength" of institutions. They say that strong institutions have rules that are actually enforced and are stable over time. If rules are ignored or not enforced, an institution becomes weak. This can make it hard for people to work together because they can't trust that others will follow the rules.

Historians also study institutions. They look at how institutions are founded, grow, decline, and change over time. For example, they study the big shift from the feudal system of the Middle Ages to the modern institutions we have today.

How Institutions Emerge and Change

Institutions can appear in different ways. Some, like a country's constitution, are created on purpose. Others, like everyday customs, can grow slowly over time as society changes. It's often hard to see these slow changes, even though institutions can seem to change quickly.

Experts like Christopher Kingston and Gonzalo Caballero say that gradual changes in society help determine which new institutions will succeed and spread. The choices people make within a society also play a big role in whether an institution survives and changes. People's interests often guide the direction of institutional change.

Some scholars believe institutions can emerge naturally without anyone planning them, as individuals and groups simply agree on a certain way of doing things. Others see institutional development as a process of learning and evolution.

Understanding why some institutions last and others don't means looking at what causes them to change. John Meyer and Brian Rowan were among the first to study how organizations are shaped by their social and political surroundings and how they change. They proposed ideas like "institutional isomorphism," which means organizations might adopt changes because of pressure from others, to solve problems, or to fit in with professional standards.

Douglass North suggests that institutions change slowly because they are so deeply rooted in society. He also says that "political entrepreneurs"—people who see opportunities to benefit from changing the rules—can drive institutional change. They weigh the costs and benefits of altering the institutional framework.

However, some formal institutions are "born weak," as Levitsky and Murillo explain. This happens when the people creating them don't really care about enforcing the rules or making them stable. This can lead to institutions that look good on paper but don't actually work well in practice. For example, developing countries might create Western-style governments to get international help, but their institutions might not function properly.

Why Institutions Last (Persistence)

Institutions tend to stick around for a long time. This is because existing groups and organizations often benefit from the current rules, so they work to keep things the way they are. As organizations grow and adapt to the existing rules, they also influence how these institutions change.

This creates something called "path dependence." It means that once a society makes a choice at a key moment (like a fork in the road), it becomes very hard to go back or choose a different path later. The choices made early on can lead to a set of self-reinforcing institutions that shape a society's development for a long time.

Even though institutions are persistent, they can change if outside forces weaken the power of existing organizations. This allows other people to bring about changes in the rules. Change can also happen if political leaders can't agree and there are no institutions to help them find a solution.

Natural Selection and Institutions

Some experts, like Ian Lustick, suggest we can think about how institutions change over time using ideas from natural selection, like in biology. Imagine institutions are trying to "fit" into their environment. They gradually improve over time, like climbing a hill. But sometimes, they can get stuck at a "local peak," meaning they can't improve any further without first getting worse.

This can explain why some institutions keep policies that are harmful, even when everyone knows they are faulty. To truly improve, they might need to adopt policies that cause short-term problems for their members. For example, some argue that Japan's economic decline in the "Lost Decade" happened because policymakers knew what changes were needed but couldn't make them without causing short-term harm to the economy.

This idea can also apply to political disagreements. A politician might not want to support policies that only show long-term benefits if they cause short-term problems, because voters often want quick results.

Some people criticize this idea, saying it's hard to objectively measure if one institution is "better" than another, especially when talking about things like freedom or quality of life, not just economic success.

Institutionalization

"Institutionalization" means making something (like an idea, a role, a value, or a behavior) a fixed and accepted part of an organization, social system, or society.

It can also mean placing a person in an institution, like a mental hospital. Sometimes, this word can have a negative meaning, suggesting that rigid systems might harm vulnerable people when rules are applied unfairly or too strictly.

In politics, "institutionalization" can also mean creating or organizing government bodies that are responsible for managing or putting policies into action, for example, in areas like welfare or development.

See also

In Spanish: Institución para niños