This essay asks why the concept of “institution” – ubiquitous, fundamental, the mark of what distinguishes human society from non-human animal groupings such as packs, herds, flocks, colonies or swarms – is so difficult to define. The essay introduces the concept of “defective institutions”. It offers definitions of “institution”, “defect” and “republicanism” in philological, philosophical, economic and sociological terms. It stresses the structural problem of offering definitions of these terms…
Read moreThis essay asks why the concept of “institution” – ubiquitous, fundamental, the mark of what distinguishes human society from non-human animal groupings such as packs, herds, flocks, colonies or swarms – is so difficult to define. The essay introduces the concept of “defective institutions”. It offers definitions of “institution”, “defect” and “republicanism” in philological, philosophical, economic and sociological terms. It stresses the structural problem of offering definitions of these terms from within institutions that require such definitions, but which also serve as the condition of their intelligibility. Taking the anarcho-philosophical tradition as its starting point, it offers an alternative, which is also an alternative to the figures of governance associated with the liberal conception of the state: an aberrant republicanism comprised of defective institutions, and riddled with the necessity for its own abolition.
