Chapter 8
How Society Works
Social Order by Self-Organization
We often celebrate the introduction of laws and regulations as historic milestones of our
society. But over-regulation has become unaffordable, and better approaches are needed.
Self-organization is the solution. As I will demonstrate, it is the basis of social order, even
though it builds upon simple social mechanisms. These mechanisms have evolved as a result
of thousands of years of societal innovation and determine whether a civilization succeeds
or fails. Currently, many people oppose globalization because traditional social mechanisms
fail to create cooperation and social order in a world, which is increasingly characterized by
non-local interactions. However, in this chapter I will show that there are some reputationand merit-based social mechanisms, which can still stabilize a globalized world, if well
designed.
Since the origin of human civilization, there has been a continuous struggle
between chaos and order. While chaos may stimulate creativity and innovation, order
is needed to coordinate the actions of many individuals easily and efficiently. In particular, our ability to produce “collective goods” is of critical importance. Examples
are roads, cities, factories, universities, theaters, and public parks, but also language
and culture.
According to Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), in the initial state of nature, everyone
fought against everybody else (“homo hominis lupus”). To overcome this destructive
anarchy, he claims, a strong state would be needed to create social order. In fact, even
today, civilization is highly vulnerable to disruption, as sudden outbreaks of civil wars
illustrate, or the breakdown of social order, which is sometimes observed after natural
disasters. But we are not only threatened by the outbreak of conflict. We are also
suffering from serious problems when coordination or cooperation fails, as it often
happens in “social dilemma” situations.
1
1 For coordination problems, in terms of individual payoffs it only matters that all decision-makers
eventually agree on one behavioral option. In case of cooperation problems, coordination is not
enough. Assuming that everyone coordinates on the same option, one of the options is more favorable
than the other(s). However, there is a dilemma: deviating from the favorable solution is tempting,
as this implies a higher individual payoff. Moreover, if everyone chooses the behavior that is
individually most profitable relative to the other choices, the resulting outcome will be bad for
everyone in absolute terms, due to a “race to the bottom”.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
D. Helbing, Next Civilization,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62330-2_8
153
How Society Works
Social Order by Self-Organization
We often celebrate the introduction of laws and regulations as historic milestones of our
society. But over-regulation has become unaffordable, and better approaches are needed.
Self-organization is the solution. As I will demonstrate, it is the basis of social order, even
though it builds upon simple social mechanisms. These mechanisms have evolved as a result
of thousands of years of societal innovation and determine whether a civilization succeeds
or fails. Currently, many people oppose globalization because traditional social mechanisms
fail to create cooperation and social order in a world, which is increasingly characterized by
non-local interactions. However, in this chapter I will show that there are some reputationand merit-based social mechanisms, which can still stabilize a globalized world, if well
designed.
Since the origin of human civilization, there has been a continuous struggle
between chaos and order. While chaos may stimulate creativity and innovation, order
is needed to coordinate the actions of many individuals easily and efficiently. In particular, our ability to produce “collective goods” is of critical importance. Examples
are roads, cities, factories, universities, theaters, and public parks, but also language
and culture.
According to Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), in the initial state of nature, everyone
fought against everybody else (“homo hominis lupus”). To overcome this destructive
anarchy, he claims, a strong state would be needed to create social order. In fact, even
today, civilization is highly vulnerable to disruption, as sudden outbreaks of civil wars
illustrate, or the breakdown of social order, which is sometimes observed after natural
disasters. But we are not only threatened by the outbreak of conflict. We are also
suffering from serious problems when coordination or cooperation fails, as it often
happens in “social dilemma” situations.
1
1 For coordination problems, in terms of individual payoffs it only matters that all decision-makers
eventually agree on one behavioral option. In case of cooperation problems, coordination is not
enough. Assuming that everyone coordinates on the same option, one of the options is more favorable
than the other(s). However, there is a dilemma: deviating from the favorable solution is tempting,
as this implies a higher individual payoff. Moreover, if everyone chooses the behavior that is
individually most profitable relative to the other choices, the resulting outcome will be bad for
everyone in absolute terms, due to a “race to the bottom”.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
D. Helbing, Next Civilization,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62330-2_8
153