Institutions coordinate agent behavior and persist beyond individuals

Evidence

In interacting with the public, police officers are acting not only as themselves, but also as extensions and agents of their organizations and as representatives of the state and of the CJS (Camp & Eberhardt, under revision). My colleagues Nicholas Camp and Jennifer Eberhardt write of the power of institutions to “standardize and coordinate the behavior of agents. By promulgating of norms, practices, and formal rules, institutions can exceed the capacities of any one individual and persist over time” (p. 7). — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 397 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

For instance, it is well known that Luhmann refers in his systems theory not to people, but to networks of communications. This does not mean that social systems could exist without people (or psychic systems), but that the meaningful reproduction and determination of meaning is a self-referential process determined by subsequent sequences of communication rather than by the will of individual human beings, the concerted efforts of groups of human beings, or some external force. Luhmann’s notion of meaning has often been overlooked or misinterpreted, with the result that his insistence on systems of communication rather than people has been seen as anti-humanist or as evidence that he simply and wilfully ignored the importance of people. This is a fundamental misreading of Luhmann’s intentions. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 20 (#complicates, via linked claim)

The point is that systems, even total systems, change; but the question about the tendencies and the laws of motion of that change is also accompanied by the relatively distinct question of the role of human agency in the process (which may, of course, by a Hegelian “ruse of history” end up doing something very different from what it “intended”). — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 467 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The temporary contract is supplanting permanent institutions across social life — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 458; Cybernetics framed global economy as price-driven feedback among guided agents — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 832; Hierarchy persists through individual, institutional, and subordinate-side processes jointly — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 3191 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Institutions standardize agent behavior and persist beyond any individual #corroborates (0.96) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 397
• Social systems reproduce through self-referential communication, not individual will #complicates (0.74) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 20
• Total systems change, and human agency’s effects often subvert its intentions #complicates (0.71) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 467