economic market forces, the assumption is that there really is a soul to lose.
However obliquely, all such criticisms are pointing to a belief that in talking
about the university, or lawyering, or news journalism at its ‘‘truest and best,’’
one is talking about something real (Kirp 2005 ; Cuban 2004 ; Linowitz 1999 ). Even
the churchy hypocrite, by not being himself on Sunday, is indirectly testifying to
the standard of a higher and truer self.
- 4 Institutional Thinking as Lengthened Time Horizons
It follows from earlier points that institutional thinking also involves being mindful
about time in a particular way. To think institutionally is to stretch the time
horizon backward and forward. One senses the shadows of both past and
future lengthening into the present. This outlook is typically expressed by being
attentive to precedent. Unfortunately, to modern ears that term evokes the image
of being controlled by the ‘‘dead hand of the past.’’
A more adequate view of institutional thinking understands precedent as a form
of solidarity. Choices made in the present serve to strengthen or erode solidarity
among an ‘‘us’’ that is peopled by the living, the dead, and the yet unborn. Because
there are attachments through time, institutional thinking means living an impli-
cated life, always both receiving and bequeathing. Decisions made in the present
are under the obligations of usufruct, the sense that one is enjoying the fruits of
something belonging to predecessors and successors. Therefore, while change is
inevitable, it is embedded in a strong appreciation for what has gone on before and
what will go on after you are gone. Inheritance keepsWnding fresh work. To put it
another way, institutional thinking restrains conduct by making it beholden to its
own past history and to the history it is creating. The present is never only the
present. It is one moment in a going concern.
Thus institutional thinking values continuity and long-term over short-term
calculations. Even within the realm of economics, it understands the world in
terms of ongoing customer markets not pointillistic auction markets (Okun 1981 ).
The focus in institutional thinking is on enduring relationships rather than point-
in-time transactions. This idea is illustrated by the story of three major highways
donated to the development program in Nepal by American, Indian, and Chinese
governments. The Americans imported an immenseXeet of heavy equipment,
quickly pushed the road through to completion, and departed, leaving most of
the machinery behind with no skilled operators to use it. With the Indians came a
large labor force. This labor force was organized into construction camps, which
moved along the highway until they reached the road’s destination and left. The
Chinese brought in foremen who recruited and trained village workers for each
section of the highway. These checkerboard sections were worked on in relays,
thinking institutionally 737