Institutions as Normative Systems. Most sociologists, from Cooley and
Weber to Selznick and Parsons, have viewed institutions primarily as nonnative
structures, providing a moral framework for the conduct of social life. Unlike
externally enforced rules and laws, norms are internalized by participants;
behavior is guided by a sense of what is appropriate, by one's social obligations .
to others, by a commitment to common values. One of the reasons for the
difference in emphasis is that economics and political scientists focus their
attention on societal systems-markets and political arenas-in which rational
self-interest is viewed as appropriate. Under such conditions, order is
achieved by the erection and enforcement of rules. By contrast, sociologists
and anthropologists tend to focus on social spheres, such as family and kinship
structures and educational and religious systems, in which participants
are more likely to embrace other-regarding behaviors, so that much order is
built into norms emphasizing mutual obligations.