ABSTRACT
Whenever I bring my gaze to bear on the field of public affairs, I find signs of crisis everywhere. The catalogue of unresolved and recurring social and political problems suggests that humans are not very good at dealing with large-scale organizational issues. Homo sapiens operated throughout the greater part of the span of its life on earth in bands of hunters and gatherers seldom exceeding one hundred members. Groups of this size and less still today exhibit vitality and cooperation. But once groups have grown to the point that most members are unknown to each other, human organizations become troubled.
