Karen:

Welcome to the madhouse. The first word that came to my mind was ideology. Though the word can have some negative undertones, I mean it in the context found in Encarta:

system of social beliefs: a closely organized system of beliefs, values, and ideas forming the basis of a social, economic, or political philosophy or program, rejecting if you will the times when it (ideology) is prefaced by words like Communist or right-wing, which usages are attempts to impart at the least disapprobation and to suggest that ideologies are not good things.

I also wonder if you might not consider as worthy the word civilization, the process of civilizing rather than the more common meaning: a society that has a high level of culture and social organization.

On another forum which I frequent, a very bright lady said, "The opposite of war is not peace but civili(z)ation." I and others found a high level of profundity there.

TEd