The Glenn Show Ben Peterson – Governing the Social Commons
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Apr 13, 2026 Ben Peterson, political scientist and author of Governing the Social Commons, explores how families, churches, and neighborhoods keep order where law and markets fail. He discusses reputation and informal sanctions, the role of moral formation in racial inequality, the spiritual side of human agency, and how communities balance liberty with communal discipline.
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Informal Institutions Make Law And Markets Work
- Societies rely heavily on informal institutions like families, churches, and neighborhoods to cultivate self-governing behavior and social order.
- Glenn Loury stresses markets and law operate within preexisting relationships and moral formation rather than creating them.
Apply Ostrom's Commons To Social Behavior
- Ben Peterson adapts Elinor Ostrom's commons framework to social behavior, arguing many social domains are governed by shared rules, sanctions, and membership incentives.
- He compares dating, family formation, and road safety to commons problems requiring monitoring, sanctions, and intergenerational commitment.
Racial Disparity As A Supply Side Problem
- Persistent racial disparities today are framed as partly a supply-side failure to develop human potential via family structure, norms, and socialization.
- Glenn links weaker family formation and parenting patterns to poorer long-term self-governing capacities among youth.
