What Every Society Must Do
Question 3 of 6: How does society turn those resources into what people need? · The whole story
In short: Rich or poor, democratic or not, every society has to do the same seven jobs to hold together and serve its people: keep them safe, share resources, keep social cohesion, pass on knowledge, care for those who need it, settle disputes peacefully, and adapt to change. Societies differ mainly in how they do these jobs, and how well.
The Question
Section titled “The Question”What Is Society For? answered why society exists: to let people meet their needs better together than alone. This article asks the next question: what work does that purpose require?
The tasks below are the same everywhere. Seeing them clearly helps you compare societies, judge policies, and spot where something is going wrong.
The Seven Tasks
Section titled “The Seven Tasks”1. Security
Section titled “1. Security”What it is: protecting people from violence, crime and outside threats, and protecting their basic rights.
Why it matters: without basic safety, nothing else is possible. People cannot work, learn, plan or trust each other when they fear for their lives or property.
How you can tell it works: low crime and violence, no armed conflict, and people trusting the police and courts to protect them rather than threaten them.
2. Sharing Resources
Section titled “2. Sharing Resources”What it is: deciding who gets what: food, water, land, energy, housing, money and opportunities.
Why it matters: there is never unlimited supply, so every society needs a way to share. Markets, governments, communities and families all play a part.
How you can tell it works: little poverty, everyone able to cover their basic needs, and opportunities that don’t depend mainly on where or to whom you were born.
3. Social Cohesion
Section titled “3. Social Cohesion”What it is: keeping enough shared identity, trust and willingness to cooperate for people to act together.
Why it matters: when trust breaks down, cooperation becomes expensive and fragile. Every agreement needs checking, and every disagreement risks becoming a conflict. Societies can split into hostile groups, or simply into people who no longer care about each other.
How you can tell it works: people trusting each other and their institutions, taking part in community and civic life, and debating without seeing each other as enemies.
4. Passing On Knowledge
Section titled “4. Passing On Knowledge”What it is: handing on knowledge, skills and values from one generation to the next, through schools and also through families, workplaces and communities.
Why it matters: each generation would otherwise start from zero. Knowledge built up over time is one of the main things that makes societies more capable.
How you can tell it works: people who can read, count, think critically and keep learning, and who understand how their society works.
5. Care
Section titled “5. Care”What it is: looking after those who cannot fully look after themselves: children, older people, the sick, people with disabilities.
Why it matters: everyone depends on care at the beginning and often at the end of life, and anyone can need it in between. How a society treats its most vulnerable is a direct test of whether it serves all its members.
How you can tell it works: healthy children, good care for older people, access to healthcare for everyone, and real support for people with disabilities, without the burden falling unfairly on a few.
6. Settling Disputes
Section titled “6. Settling Disputes”What it is: providing fair, peaceful ways to resolve disagreements between people, between groups, and between citizens and the state.
Why it matters: disagreement is normal in any group. What matters is that it is settled by rules and discussion rather than by force.
How you can tell it works: laws applied equally to everyone, access to justice for ordinary people, peaceful changes of government, and little political violence.
7. Adapting to Change
Section titled “7. Adapting to Change”What it is: recognising new challenges and opportunities, such as new technologies, environmental change or an ageing population, and adjusting in time.
Why it matters: the conditions a society depends on never stay the same. A society that cannot adapt eventually fails at all the other tasks.
How you can tell it works: a capacity to research and innovate, institutions that can reform themselves, and the ability to recover from shocks such as crises or disasters.
When a Task Fails
Section titled “When a Task Fails”The tasks depend on each other, so a failure in one spreads to the others:
- When social cohesion breaks down (task 3), sharing resources and settling disputes become much harder, because people stop believing the rules are fair.
- When disputes cannot be settled peacefully (task 6), conflict follows, and security, care and knowledge all suffer. Civil wars destroy decades of progress in a few years.
- When adaptation fails (task 7), a society can keep working well for a while, then suddenly struggle when conditions change. The COVID-19 pandemic tested every society’s capacity for care and adaptation at the same time, and showed large differences between them.
The Human Side
Section titled “The Human Side”These tasks matter because each one protects needs every person has. The Personal Guide describes five: physical health and energy, safety and security, social connection, autonomy, and meaning and purpose. When a society does its tasks well, people can meet these needs without a daily struggle. When a task fails, people feel it directly: insecurity turns into constant fear, failing care leaves families exhausted, and broken cohesion leaves people lonely and distrustful. That’s why a society can’t be judged by its economy alone. The real test is how well its people’s needs are met.
Open Questions
Section titled “Open Questions”- Which tasks should be handled by the state, and which left to communities, families or markets? (See Who Keeps Society Running?)
- How much inequality is acceptable before sharing resources and trust start to fail?
- How can a society adapt quickly without losing the trust and stability it depends on?
Where Next
Section titled “Where Next”- Previous: What Is Society For?
- Next: Who Keeps Society Running?, on who carries out these tasks
- Related: Social Redistribution, on sharing resources fairly
Sources
Section titled “Sources”- Talcott Parsons, The Social System (1951), an early analysis of the functions every society must fulfil
- Francis Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (1995)
- Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (2000), on trust and social connection
- Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, Why Nations Fail (2012), on institutions and long-term success
- Jared Diamond, Collapse (2005), on societies that failed to adapt