MetaJess

Stage 3 institutions do not have explicit boundaries and they encompass all of life. In this way they function kinda like a dialect continuum where they slowly blend into each other and you only get sharp boundaries where people don't interact with each other.

Stage 4 institutions have explicit boundaries and they encompass all of one aspect of life. ex: being a student at a university is explicit and exclusive while at the same time independent of your employment.

Internet institutions might be a possible model for stage 5 institutions where specific actions are explicit part of one institution but the person itself is not other than having the permission to participate in that institution.

This implies that stage 5 institutions function without any commitment of its members to it. This seems right but I haven't really thought it through.

In stage 3 you're committed to the current social situation. In stage 4 you are committed to systems to the extend you're acting in a domain they're claiming applicability to. In stage 5 there is no commitment other than to being aware.

So yes it seems to me that stage 5 institutions will be voluntary institutions. This will limit them. Compare and contrast how stage 4 institutions are limited by their inability to spontaneously expand their domain of action.