Symbolic Law

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Symbolic Law

• Sociology 641

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Symbolic Laws

• Gusfield Instrumental purposes vs. symbolic
  purposes
• Symbolic politics The control of society by
  the selective evocation of values, beliefs and
  identities
• In memoriam Professor Murray Edelman
• Scapegoating entire subcultures
• Enforcement vs. declaration

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Example Temperance 1800-1918

• Ordinary Times (1800s)
• Tolerant moralism, rehabilitation
• Period of Threat (1850-1918)
• Immigration
• Scapegoating, retribution
• Crisis (1918)
• WWI, post-war recession ? A culture besieged
• Prohibition
• Since Prohibition Medicalization

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Summary

• Wide variation in societal reactions to deviance
• Instrumental Specific and general deterrence
• Moral, Constitutive Rehabilitation and
  retribution
• Symbolic meaning of deviance
• Ordinary times tolerant rehabilitation
• Periods of threat retributive scapegoating
• Symbolic laws

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Micro Foundations of Legal Behavior

• Unit Summary

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Micro-FoundationsSummary Table