Governance theories

Introduction

For decades, the socioeconomic models that tested cooperation predicted that it would only endure in groups that developed social norms of commitment, trust, and reciprocity.[1] But as Mathew Jackson noted, and what still holds, those predictions invariably have drawn from models that address small groups of agents and ignore questions of how communities build networks into historical regimes with the capacity to create bonds extending beyond kinship and lineage.

Strategic messaging is ever more important in the age of explosive social media. So much information flows to and through societies, governments and individu­als that any attempt to organize and make sense of the data is welcome for its ability to be consumed. Not all information on the Internet is benign. Some indi­viduals and organizations work to manipulate the information to represent their views. Some go beyond and use information as a tool to persuade. Some gov­ernments weaponize data into propaganda to purposefully harm other nations.