Social Norms and the Law: A Social Institutional Approach
77 Pages Posted: 2 May 2005
Date Written: March 2005
Abstract
This paper adopts a social institutional approach to account for the societal-level mechanisms underlying the interaction between social norms and the law. Drawing on institutional economics and social psychology, this paper outlines a model in which norms form interdependent systems. In this model, societal orientations define the backbone of an evolving body of norms. This model sheds light on the nature of the rule of law and on its role in promoting social order. This paper posits that treating social norms as isolated regularities, as is commonly done in the literature, misses the big picture of social norms. Analyses of the relations between social norms and the law consequently run the risk of becoming "just so stories." Economic analyses of other-regarding behavior may go beyond the narrow view of self-interestedness yet they remain confined to the individual level of analysis.
Keywords: social norms, rule of law, social institutions, culture, economics and psychology
JEL Classification: K00, Z1, Z13
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation