The collapse of cooperation: the endogeneity of institutional break-up and its asymmetry with emergence

Abstract

Decline and break-up of institutionalized cooperation, at all levels, has occurred frequently. Some of its concomitants, such as international migration, have become topical in the globalized world. Aspects of the phenomenon have also become known as failing states. However, the focus in most social sciences has been on institutional emergence and persistence, not collapse. We develop an endogenous explanation of collapsing institutions. Collapse may be an implication of the very economic success of institutionalized cooperation and of increasing system complexity, when cognitive conditions for effective collective decision-making do not proportionately evolve. Moreover, we show that collapse is not a simple logical reverse of emergence. Rather, institutions break up at different factor constellations than the ones prevailing at emergence. We approach endogenous institutional break-up and its asymmetry from various paradigmatic and disciplinary perspectives, employing psychology, anthropology, network analysis, and institutional economics. These perspectives cover individuals, groups, interaction-arenas, populations, and social networks.

Innovation and information: Smooth and ongoing change, or turbulence and cognitive over-stress? On the complex deep structure of innovation

“…This will facilitate the spreading of innovation cooperation among high-degree nodes (e.g., Rong & Wu, 2009). With a lower degree correlation, a network would have a substantial number of more isolated hub structures, in which defective behaviour may more easily persist (e.g., Cordes et al, 2021).…”

The Adjustment of Domestic Capital Layout in China under the Background of “Dual Circulation”

“…At the same time, we will guide financial institutions to increase the credit issuance of foreign trade enterprises and provide convenience for relevant enterprises in the approval and other lending procedures. Increasing turbulence, rising inequality and ceremonialization, entailing myopia, higher monitoring and punishment costs, may lead to a collapse of cooperation and socio-economic prosperity [11]. Policymakers should draw on historical and current experience, regional and other experiences, to explore appropriate distribution systems for economic and financial development.…”