Institutions preserve and facilitate political gains

Magestic buildings symbolize national institutions and their high purpose. Impressive board rooms provide solumn backdrops to the decisionmaking of corporate governors. Preserving and strengthening institutions makes life more predictable. This tends to reduce the cost and risk of individual and collective action. It assures that individuals and communities focus on shared goals and objectives, the focus necessary to survival, security, and well-being of citizen and employee alike. A "failed state" or "bankrupt company" is an institution that has lost its ability to make rules and policy and to promote cooperation; it has lost its authority and no longer merits loyalty. It no longer provides the social cohesion essential to setting goals and applying power to achieve them.