Norms and Rules

Abstract

The subject of rules, like that of meaning, is basic to a discursive sociology, not merely because members cite rules but because the sociologist’s descriptions and accounts of social order are phrased in terms of rules. (Of course, such descriptions may also be phrased in terms of statistical tendencies, but this is not the approach of a discursive sociology of action.) Therefore, we must reach some understanding about the fundamental nature of rules. I have chosen to organize this chapter around the distinction between regulative and constitutive rules (Searle 1969). In the previous chapter, I made a distinction between two types of regulative rules (norms and regulations), but the discussion was focused mainly on norms. I continue that policy in this section, before turning to a consideration of constitutive rules.

You are therefore to make your best of what is settled by law and custom, and not vainly imagine that it will be changed for your sake.

George Savile, The Lady’s New-Year’s Gift; Or, Advice to a Daughter