Norms

Regulatory or Behavioral Norms

Most scholars agree that norms are collective expectations of how actors will behave under certain circumstances. For example, when an elderly person gets on a subway car, in many countries it is expected that younger people will give up their seat so that the older person may sit down. Norms of seniority govern the appointment of positions in the U.S. Senate. This enables smoother transfers of authority than would occur if each position had to be contested openly. Norms of diplomatic protocol provide a code of behavior that ensures that foreign diplomats do not inadvertently insult one another and unintentionally spark international disputes. Norms form a web of expectations that guide actors' behavior, even when there is no formal government or other centralized means of enforcing conformity. Even formally anarchic systems, such as the international system, are governed through norms.

Norms are considered to be regulatory in that they define and prescribe what behavior is appropriate in particular conditions. Regulatory norms are behavioral guides or signposts. Regulatory norms function to maintain social stability by guiding how people behave in particular situations. They create part of the social environment or structure that actors face when they make choices about strategies to pursue to achieve their goals.

Orthodox behavioralists and positivists dissent from this view of norms as collective expectations and argue that norms can only be defined as dominant or normal practices (i.e., an observable pattern of behavior). For many behavioralists and positivists, the power of norms lies not in the content of the norms themselves, but in the social sanctions or powerful actors that back them up. These theorists argue that the [Page 623]threat of penalties for noncompliance are what make behavioral norms matter and what shapes actors' calculations of how to behave in a given situation.

Regulatory Norms and Governance

Regulatory norms contribute to governance by facilitating dispute resolution. Norms can prevent disputes from arising in the first place by providing behavioral guidance, as in the norms of diplomatic protocol. Norms also structure actors' choices regarding compliance. They can provide disputants with the bases for evaluating disputed conduct (for example, norms of what counts as inappropriate behavior, valid evidence, and a fair trial). They can also offer potential solutions to the conflict. In some circumstances, the dispute may be resolved by the norm of apology, whereas in other cases, a norm of fair compensation may apply. In addition to facilitating conflict resolution, norms can also be the source of conflict. Actors who reject a prevailing norm, such as the practice of slavery or the separation of church and state, may struggle to change that norm and put their own norm in place. This struggle produces a new or altered norm, which then goes on to govern subsequent behavior.

...