Norms

Abstract

Norms are one of the subjects that is a major theme in various social science disciplines, in particular sociology, political science, economics, anthropology, and social psychology. These social science disciplines focus on the empirical study of norms, jurisprudence and philosophy (moral philosophy and deontic logic) address the question of what ‘good’ norms are and how normative reasoning can be formalized. This article is concerned with the empirical study of norms. The following questions are discussed. Since the norms concept is defined in various ways it is first useful to elaborate on the major dimensions of the norms concept and to ask what norms definition is to be preferred. The next issue is how norms can be measured. The central theoretical questions are how norms originate and, if they exist, what effects they have. These questions are addressed in the last two sections of the article.