Civility should be treated as a civic virtue that functions like infrastructure: a cultivated set of skills, rituals, and small institutions that make cross‑subcultural cooperation and democratic contest possible without eroding constitutional safeguards. It is not an alternative to rules and rights but a durable social technology that institutions can deliberately promote (training, rituals, public norms) to reduce destabilizing antagonism.
— Framing civility as infrastructure reframes policy levers — education, public rituals, institutional practices, appointment criteria — and makes cultural repair into an actionable governance agenda for polarization, campus disputes, and local politics.
Kristin McTiernan
2026.01.09
92% relevant
Both pieces argue that civility and ritualized social conventions operate like public infrastructure that sustains pluralistic institutions; the article’s Victorian mourning and introduction rules are concrete examples of the same ‘civic infrastructure’ mechanism named in the existing idea (who enforces norms, how rituals reduce conflict).
Massimo Pigliucci
2026.01.08
62% relevant
The Stoic emphasis on pro‑social cooperation, role ethics, and focusing on what is up to us maps directly onto the argument that civility should be treated as infrastructural — a set of cultivated practices and rituals that sustain democratic cooperation.
James McWilliams
2026.01.07
92% relevant
The article argues that everyday kindness functions like infrastructure that sustains democratic encounters; this directly echoes the 'Civility as Political Infrastructure' idea which treats civility as a public good requiring cultivation and repair, and the author explicitly recommends rebuilding kindness habits in public spaces (airports, diners, bookstores) as a prerequisite for healthier politics.
Massimo Pigliucci
2026.01.05
62% relevant
Pigliucci emphasizes Stoic practices (focus on what is up to you, role ethics, attention discipline) that map directly onto the idea of cultivating civility as an institutional skill set; the article supplies the philosophical rationale and public‑facing language that could be operationalized as civic training or institutional norms.
Ferenc Hörcher
2025.12.30
100% relevant
Ferenc Hörcher’s essay argues civility mediates between Machiavellian agonism and liberal apoliticism, calling civility a political virtue and supplement to institutional safeguards.