The strength of a nation's institutions is not just in their formal rules, but in the informal norms that govern behavior and the degree to which they are internalized by the population.
The most effective economic communities are founded on a shared ethical horizon, which includes a set of moral obligations that members of the community owe to one another.
The ability to associate depends, in turn, on the degree to which communities share norms and values and are able to subordinate individual interests to those of larger groups.
Trust is the expectation that arises within a community of regular, honest, and cooperative behavior, based on commonly shared norms, on the part of other members of that community.
The most significant threat to liberal democracy today is not from rival ideologies like communism or fascism, but from within—from the rise of populism and the erosion of democratic norms.
