Author_Institution :
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY, USA
Abstract :
Social institutions are critical to organization and stability. Governments, businesses, markets, military, schools, hospitals, families, and churches are all complex institutions that provide services through an elaborate system of social organization. These institutions are designed to provide specific services to their constituencies by acquiring resources, by converting those resources to services, and by maintaining a permanent bureaucracy to create and deliver those services.