Before we start in on the many reforms they need, let’s take a moment to appreciate just how hard it is to build strong institutions.

All institutions are messy. All institutions are flawed. All institutions need to pushed.

There’s an easy way to tell if an institution is broken. Just look at the incentives.

Techniques stolen from the social sciences have completely transformed how our institutions operate.

There’s a separate, unequal pathway for kids from affluent families—and a pathway for everyone else.

There are inherent problems with both government-funded and privately-owned media.

Believe what you want. Just don’t believe your religion is any less susceptible to the problems that afflict our other institutions.

The free market approach to producing information is failing.

If we want to fix our major problems, the government is going to have to play a major role.

Our government can either be the champion of the people…or yet another oppressive institution.

For all its virtues, there are many things capitalism can’t do—or won’t do, unless it’s forced to do it.

Nobody in American politics today has the right solution to fix our economic woes.

We can’t break our deadlock by going through this two-party system. We have to rise above it.

Electoral reform isn’t the sexiest political issue. But it’s among the most important.

The governments of the world need to take away the ability of corporations to run away from regulations they don’t like.