The backbone of democracy. The metainstitutional basis of modern society

The article deals with the «minimal configuration» of social institutions that ensure sustainable development not by adapting to the environment (the adaptive behaviour characteristic of traditional societies), but through uninterrupted generation and implementation of innovations that transform environment to meet the changing needs of humankind. This type of active adaptive behaviour characteristic of modern society could not be maintained in the absence of three basic «metainstitutions» of modernity, viz. 1) science, 2) the banking and exchange system, 3) institutions of representative democracy (parliaments), plus three «support institutions»: 4) free press (mass media), 5) rational bureaucracy, 6) independent judiciary.