In this book Seumas Miller examines the moral foundations of contemporary social institutions. Offering an original general theory of social institutions he posits that all social institutions exist to realize various collective ends indeed to produce collective goods. He analyses key concepts such as collective responsibility and institutional corruption. Miller also provides distinctive special theories of particular institutions including governments welfare agencies universities police organizations business corporations and communications and information technology entities. These theories are philosophical and thus foundational and synoptic in character. They are normative accounts of a sampling of contemporary social institutions not descriptive accounts of all social institutions both past and present. Miller also addresses various ethical challenges confronting contemporary institutional designers and policymakers including the renovation of the international financial system the ''dumbing down'' of the media the challenge of world poverty and human rights infringements by security agencies combating global terrorism. Language: English