Inmulti-culturalsocieties, peoplecanstudyeach other'scultures, to developinterculturalcompetencies, such ascriticalandreflectivethinking, andintellectualflexibility.
Economists in the French Enlightenment (like Jacques Turgot) and the Scottish Enlightenment (like Adam Smith) recognized that essential human institutions such as language, culture, legal customs, mutual aid societies and markets develop spontaneously when governments get out of the way.
The distribution of assets, and of the costs and benefits of different policies, as well as the role of trust, are all critical to the ability of societies to develop competent rules and institutions to address environmental, social and economic problems.