Institution

An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior, generally entailing some level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions, and norms are all examples of institutions, which vary in their level of formality and informality. Institutions embody a great deal of knowledge about how to do things in society and have been described as the social science equivalent of theories in the natural sciences. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/