A thought about new institutions,

Author Packer focuses on the deterioration of American institutions. Think also about the creation of institutions.

Perhaps the most obvious kind of institution is the formal organization. There are quite a few new ones since World War II, such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc.

Institutions organizing international affairs have also been created, such as the United Nations system of organizations and the Breton Woods system including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other international financial institutions, and an increasingly complex system of international conventions such as the Geneva Convention and the conventions implementing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We are seeing gay marriage institutionalized before our very eyes, as states legalize gay marriage, the Supreme Court finds for gay marriage, and the federal government defines policy to provide federal benefits for married couples to gay couples. Perhaps we might also consider the huge increases in single parent households, unmarried heterosexual households and extramarital sex as related to the evolution of new "familial" institutions.

Markets are institutions, and we see online markets growing and replacing face-to-face markets. Examples are EBay, the online book market, etc,

How about the Wikis, such as Wikipedia and Wikileaks?

I would suggest that the social media are new institutions for interpersonal interaction.

Institution building is a key element of international development. We often consider the function of foreign aid projects as supporting the development of institutions, such as legislative institutions, judicial institutions, agricultural extension systems, public school systems, public health systems, the different organizations of the executive branch of government, etc. Perhaps more attention should be directed to the building of new kinds of institutions such as those mentioned above.