The Normativity of Institutions

Abstract

Some philosophers have claimed that normativity is an essential feature of social institutions, and have identified the source of normativity in collective intentionality. In this paper I argue that (1) normativity is not essential for social institutions; (2) normativity has many sources and it is unlikely that a single theory is able to account for them all; (3) a powerful conception of institutions – the “rules in equilibrium” account – provides an adequate framework to represent the effects of normativity and to explain its social function; (4) it is a mistake to ask a theory of institutions to do more than that. While normativity is an important element of institutions, we should not build our social ontology on a single, specific conception of normativity.