Norms & rules

Norms (also called rules) surround us. As members of a society, we learn and (most of time) obey the rules that regulate our social life. Almost every aspect of our social life is ordered, organised by norms. 

But social life can be very complex, and the norms that govern different aspects of our social life are also different. Broadly speaking, we can classify every norm into one of three categories: social, legal and moral norms. 

Social norms

Social norms are everywhere. They may not be written and maybe nobody is going to punish you if you do not follow them, but you surely know they are there:

• Think about a day in your life, since you wake up in the morning until you go to bed at night. How many social norms can you identify?

• If social norms are not written, how do people learn them? There are different ways, try to identify some of them.

• If none is in charge to coerce us (imposing a fine or other kinds of punishment), how is it that we almost always follow the social norms of our society?

Social norms change from place to place and from time to time:

• Which social norms change most?

• Is there a reason for some of those changes?

• Are some norms better than others?

Social norms are relative. Different societies in diffferent places or at different times in history have different social norms.

• Can you put some examples of different social norms in different societies?

• Can you find reasons why different societies have different norms?

• Should you obey the social norms of a given society when you are not a member of that society?

Legal norms (laws)

Compared with social norms, legal norms (laws and regulations) are quite different:

• They are written, codified in legal texts. Can you mention some of those texts?

• What kind of matters do laws regulate? Mention as many of them as you can.

• There are specific people in charge of watching over all of us and eventually punish those of us that do not obey them. Does it mean that most of us obey the law because we fear punishment? What other motive may be behind our obedience?

• Why do legal norms exist? Why are social norms not enough in certain aspects of our social life?

Because different kinds of punishment (fines, loosing of rights, jail) are established when legal norms are not obeyed, the processes of creating, applying and revoking laws are also well established in our society:

• Who makes the most important laws? How are laws written and approved in our society?

• Who decides when people differ in their interpretations of the law?

Because laws regulate some of the most important aspects of our social life, the task of enforcing them is divided among different institutions (and different people working for those institutions):

• Who watches that laws are obeyed and arrests those that don't obey them?

• Who decides if the person arrested is guilty?

• Who decides what punishment deserves those guilty of breaking the law?

Moral norms

Finally, we can distinguish a third class of norms: moral norms. Morality (the collection of all moral norms) deals with two important aspects of our life:

• What is a good life? What is the best way of living a happy life?

• What is right? What is the just way of treating other people?

These two questions are very general and have been answered in many different ways by people of different epochs and places. Could you try to tentatively answer them? Maybe you have several answers depending on the situation, the people involved, the matter being discussed and so on.

Moral norms share with social norms some characteristics:

• They are not written in a legal text. In that sense, they are informal rather than formal.

• None is formally in charge of watching if we obey or disobey the moral rules.

• Although we may not be punished with a fine or prison, those that do not follow a moral rule face other kind of punishment: social criticism and even social exclusion.

On the other hand, moral norms are unlike social norms in several important aspects:

• Social norms are followed mainly because social pressure: we tend to act in similar ways as the people around us. If society changes its social norms, most of its members (and specially its new members) change accordingly. Even if have interiorized the social norms and have made them "ours", the main reason for following a social norm is its widespread acceptance. Can you give some examples of social pressure?

• The motive for following a moral norm is not social but personal. We decide if we follow a moral norm depending on many factors, but after weighing those factors we decide based on our moral conscience. Can you explain a little bit what is moral conscience?

• It is also possible to follow a moral norm not because we follow our moral conscience but simply because we follow other people. In those cases, the moral norm operates more like a social norm. Can you give an example of a situation when, for a given person, a moral norm operates as a social norm and the same moral norm operates as such for another person? Emphasize the different motivations of these two people.

Morality and the law

If moral rules can sometimes be interpreted as social rules, as when somebody decides to donate blood not because its moral conscience advises to do it but because its friends and acquitances are blood donors, moral rules can also be followed not as moral rules but as laws. The reason is simple: many laws are based on moral considerations of what is good and right. Conversely, many moral norms are so important that they have been incorporated into the law. 

Morality and legality are not two disjoint fields; they share a non-empty intersection area:  

Consider the following norms and decide which ones belong to each of the three different areas of the previous drawing:

1. You should not torture animals, even if they are your property.

2. Donating blood is a good thing to do.

3. The speed limit in motorways is 120 Km/h.

4. Keep your friends close if you want to live a happy life.

5. You should stop your vehicle and help those involved in an accident.

6. Gas appliances in home kitchens must be revised yearly.

Now, consider only those norms of the previous list that belong to the intersection between legality and morality. People can follow those norms because of moral reasons (because of their moral conscience) or because of legal reasons (because they obey the law whatever it says or because of fear the consequences). Can you describe a situation in which two people obey the same norm but one of them because of legal reasons and the other because of moral ones?

Civil disobedience

Consider the following two set of questions:

1. 1. Do we have always to obey the law? Even when obeying the law is not in our particular benefit? Even when obeying the law makes us doing something we do not like or feel like doing at the moment? Describe a couple of situations in which we are tempted to disobey the law.

   2. Do we have always to obey the law? Even when obeying the law damages many people and benefits none or only a few? Even when obeying the law makes us doing something unjust? Can you describe a situation like this?

Disobeying the law in situations like 1. is not civic disobediece, it is plain disobedience motivated by our personal, egoistic motives. On the contrary, situations like 2. can lead to civic disobedience.

After watching the previous videos you can answer the following questions:

• Who was David Thoureau?

• Describe three historical situations that provoked civil disobedience. Name the three social leaders that were at the front of each civic disobedience movement.

• What is the purpose of civic disobedience?

• Which are the main characteristics of civic disobedience?

• Civic disobedience is a very specific form of civic protest. Can you identify other forms of civic protest? 

Explore the following links looking for cases of civic disobedience.

• Insumisión

• Deshaucio