Social rule system theory is an attempt to formally approach different kinds of social rule

systems in a unified manner. Social rules systems include institutions such as norms, laws,
regulations, taboos, customs, and a variety of related concepts and are important in the social
sciences and humanities. Social rule system theory is fundamentally an institutionalist approach
to the social sciences, both in its placing primacy on institutions and in its use of sets of rules to
define concepts in social theory.
The development of a more systematic conceptualization and theorizing about social rules and
systems of social rules emerged in the late 1970s in the collaborative work of Thomas
Baumgartner, Tom R. Burns, Philippe DeVille, and later Helena Flam, Reinier de Man, Atle
Midttun, Anders Olsson, and others. Its formalization stemmed from a number of articles in the
early 1980s, which led up to Burns et al. (1985) and Burns and Flam (1987), Machado (1998),
Carson (2004), Flam and Carson (2008). Social theory concepts such as norm, value, belief, role,
social relationship, and institution as well as game were shown to be definable in a uniform way
in terms of rules and rule complexes [1]. Rules may be imprecise, possibly inconsistent, and open
to a greater or lesser extent to modification and transformation by the participants.
Rules are key concepts in the new institutionalism (March and Olsen, 1984; North, 1990;
Ostrom, 1990; Powell and DiMaggio, 1991; Scott, 1995, among others), in several variants of
socio-cultural evolutionary theory (Burns and Dietz, 1992; Hodgson 2002; Schmid and Wuketits,
1987), and in work in semiotics (Lotman, 1975; Posner, 1989), linguistics (Chomsky, 1957;
1965), and philosophy on language games (Wittgenstein, 1958). Among the many other
researchers developing and applying rule concepts in the social sciences, one would also include
Cicourel (1974), Giddens (1984), Goffman (1974), Harr (1979), Harre and Secord (1972),
Lindblom (1977), and Twining and Miers (1982), among many others. In general, much of the
use of rule concept in the social sciences and humanities has been informal and even
metaphorical, with the major exception of Chomsky (1957, 1965).

Contents
[hide]

1 The universality of social rule systems and rule processes

2 Social rules and the patterning of action
o 2.1 Culture and institutional arrangements
o 2.2 Cognitive processes
o 2.3 Textually encoded social rules
o 2.4 Interpretation and variability
3 Adherence to and compliance with social rules
4 Social rule system theory and complex institutional arrangements
5 Rule system change and evolution
6 Further reading
7 Footnotes

[edit] The universality of social rule systems and rule

processes
Social rule system theory notes that most human social activity is organized and regulated by
socially produced and reproduced systems of rules. These rules have a tangible existence in
societies in language, customs and codes of conduct, norms and laws, and in social institutions
such as family, community, market, business enerprises, and government agencies. Thus, this
theory posits that the making, interpretation, and implementation of social rules are universal in
human society, as are their reformulation and transformation. Human agents (individuals,
groups, organizations, communities, and other collectivities) produce, carry, and reform these
systems of social rules, and this frequently takes place in ways they neither intend nor expect.
This does not mean that social rule systems do not change. They can and do, and that change can
be endogenous and exogenous to the society. The implementation of rules and the maintenance
of some order always calls for cumulative experience, adjustment, adaptation, etc. In such
ways, normative and institutional innovation is generated. There is a continual interplay a
dialectic, if you will between the regulated and the unregulated (Lotman, 1975). What is more,
at the same time that social rule systems strongly influence actions and interactions, they are
formed and reformed by the actors involved. Human agency is manifest in this dialectical
process, played out by participating actors having their specific competencies and endowments,
their situational analyses, interpretations, and strategic responses to immediate pushes and pulls
to which they are subject.

[edit] Social rules and the patterning of action

Social rule systems are used to examine all levels of human interaction (Burns and Flam, 1987;
Carson, 2005; Giddens, 1984; Goffman, 1974; Harr, 1979; Lotman, 1975; Posner, 1989, among
others). They provide more than potential constraints on action possibilities. They also generate
opportunities for social actors to behave in ways that would otherwise be impossible, for
instance, to coordinate with others, to mobilize and to gain systematic access to strategic
resources, to command and allocate substantial human and physical resources, and to solve
complex social problems by organizing collective actions. In guiding and regulating interaction,
social rules give behavior recognizable, characteristic patterns, and make such patterns
understandable and meaningful for those who share in the rule knowledge.

[edit] Culture and institutional arrangements

The Brazilian Carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro is given meanings through shared understanding
of culturally defined rules.
On the macro-level of culture and institutional arrangements, rule system complexes are
examined: language, cultural codes and forms, institutional arrangements, shared paradigms,
norms and rules of the game.[2] On the actor level, one refers to roles, particular norms,
strategies, action paradigms, and social grammars (for example, procedures of order, turn taking,
and voting in committees and democratic bodies). [3] grammars of action are associated with
culturally defined roles and institutional domains, indicating particular ways of thinking and
acting. In that sense, the grammars are both social and conventional. For instance, in the case of
gift giving or reciprocity in defined social relationships, actors display a competence in knowing
when a gift should be given or not, how much it should be worth, or, if one should fail to give it
or if it lies under the appropriate value, what excuses, defenses and justifications might be
acceptable. Someone ignorant of these rules, e.g. a child or someone from a totally different
culture would obviously make mistakes (for which they would probably be excused by others).
Similarly, in the case of "making a promise," rule knowledge indicates under what circumstances
a promise may or may not legitimately be broken or at least the sort of breach of a promise that
might be considered acceptable. In guiding and regulating interaction, the rules give behavior
recognizable, characteristic patterns [4] making the patterns understandable and meaningful for
those sharing in the rule knowledge. Shared rules are the major basis for knowledgeable actors to
derive, or to generate, similar situational expectations. They also provide a frame of reference
and categories, enabling participants to readily communicate about and to analyze social
activities and events. In such ways, uncertainty is reduced, predictability is increased. This is so
even in complex situations with multiple actors playing different roles and engaging in a variety
of interaction patterns. As Harre and Secord (1972:12) point out, It is the self-monitoring
following of rules and plans that we believe to be the social scientific analogue of the working of
generative causal mechanisms in the processes which produce the non-random patterns studied
by natural scientists.

[edit] Cognitive processes

Social rule systems play then an important role in cognitive processes, in part by enabling actors
to organize and to frame perceptions in a given institutional setting or domain. On the basis of a
more or less a common rule system, questions such as the following can be intersubjectively and
collectively answered: what is going on in this situation; what kind of activity is this; who is who
in the situation, what specific roles are they playing; what is being done; why is this being done?

The participating actors can understand the situation in intersubjective ways. In a certain sense,
they can simulate and predict what will happen in the interactions on the basis of the applied
rules. Hence, rule systems provide not only a basis for interpretative schemes but also the
concrete basis for actors to plan and judge actions and interactions. Social rules are also
important in normative and moral communications about social action and interaction.
Participants refer to the rules in giving accounts, in justifying or criticizing what is being done
(or not done), in arguing for what should or should not be done, and also in their social
attribution of who should or should not be blamed for performance failures, or credited with
success. Actors also exploit rules when they give accounts in order to try to justify certain
actions or failures to act, as part of a strategy to gain legitimacy, or to convince others that
particular actions are "right and proper" in the context.

[edit] Textually encoded social rules

The Magna Carta from 1215 is an early English form of encoded social and legal rules.
So called formal rules are found in sacred books, legal codes, handbooks of rules and
regulations, or in the design of organizations or technologies that an elite or dominant group
seeks to impose in a particular social setting. For instance, a formal organization such as a
bureaucracy consists of, among other features, a well-defined hierarchical authority structure,
explicit goals and policies, and clear-cut specialization of function or division of labor. Informal
rules appear less "legislated" and more "spontaneous" than formal rules. They are generated and
reproduced in ongoing interactions. The extent to which the formal and informal rule systems
diverge or contradict one another varies. Numerous organizational studies have revealed that
official, formal rules are not always those that operate in practice. In some cases the informal
unwritten rules not only contradict formal rules but take precedence over them under some
conditions. Informal rules emerge for a variety of reasons. In part, formal rules fail to completely
specify action (that is provide complete directions) or to cover all relevant (or emergent)
situations. The situations (in which rules are applied or implemented) are particularistic, even
idiosyncratic, whereas formal rules of behavior are more or less general. In some situations
(especially emergent or new situations), actors may be uncertain or disagree about which rules
apply or about the ways in which to apply them. They engage in situational analyses and rule
modification, or even rule innovation out of which emerge informal rules (which may be
formalized later).

[edit] Interpretation and variability

However strongly actions are patterned by rules, social life is sufficiently complex that some
imagination and interpretation are required in applying rules to a specific action and interaction
context. Imagination generates variability in action from actor to actor, and even for a given
actor over time. Rules are also interpreted in their application. Even highly formalized,
systematic rules such as laws and written rules of bureaucracy are never complete in their
specification. They have to be interpreted and applied using situational information and
knowledge. Adaptations and improvisations are common, even in the most formally organized
institutions. In this sense, rules are generative, and their interpretation and implementation more
or less context-dependent. Interpretation varies across a population sharing a rule system, and
also across time. In addition, rules will sometimes be learned or implemented with error,
providing in some cases an incorrect model for others. Both of these factors result in variability.
Moreover, if an action at deviance with cultural rules or standard interpretations is perceived by
other actors as advantageous, it may be copied, thus spreading what becomes a new cultural
variant.

[edit] Adherence to and compliance with social rules

Actors adhere to and implement rule and rule systems to varying degrees. Compliance with, or
refusal to comply with, particular rules are complicated cognitive and normative processes.
Typically, there are diverse reasons for rule compliance. Several of the most important factors
are:
1. Interest factors and instrumentalism (stressed by public choice and Marxist perspectives
on self-interested behavior). Actors may advocate rules to gain benefits or to avoid
losses.
2. Identity and status. Adherence to rules and commitment to their realization may be
connected to an actor's identity, role, or status, and the desire to represent self as
identified by or committed to particular rules. It follows that a major motivation in
maintaining (or changing rules) e.g. role complexes or distributive rules is to maintain
or change their social status.
3. Authoritative Legitimacy and Sacrality. Many rules are accepted and adhered to because
persons or groups with social authority have defined or determined them, possibly by
associating them with sacred principles or identifying their causal or symbolic
relationship to actors' interests and status. In the contemporary world, we find the
widespread institutionalization of abstract meta-rules of compliance that orient people to
accepting particular definitions of reality and rule systems propagated by socially defined
and often certified authorities, e.g. scientists and other experts. The authority may be
scientific, religious, or political (for instance in the latter case, the fact that a democratic
agency has determined the rules according to right and proper procedures). Certain rules
may even be associated with God, the sacred, and, in general, those beings or things that
actors stand in awe of, have great respect for, and may associate with or share in their
charisma by adhering to or following their rules.
4. Normative/Cognitive Order. Actors may follow rules and try to ensure that others
follow them because the rules fit into a cognitive frame for organizing their perceptions
and making sense of what is going on. People react negatively to deviance even in

cases where they are not directly affected (that is, there are no direct apparent selfinterests), because the order is disturbed, potentially destabilized, and eroded.

Teamsters clash with riot police in the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934. Both
groups use various methods to assure compliance with institutional rules.
5. Social sanctions. Laws and formal organizational rules and regulations are typically
backed up by specific social sanctions and designated agents assigned the responsibility
and authority to enforce the rules. There are a variety of social controls and sanctions in
any social group or organization which are intended to induce or motivate actors to
adhere to or follow rules, ranging from coercion to more symbolic forms of social
approval or disapproval, persuasion, and activation of commitments (in effect,
"promises" that have already been made). In order to gain entrance or to remain in the
group, one must comply with key group rules and role definitions. Exclusion from the
group, if there are no alternative groups, becomes a powerful sanction.
6. Inherent sanctions. Many rules, when adhered to in specific action settings, result in gains
or payoffs that are inherent in following those rules, such as going with (or against)
automobile traffic. In many cases, the reasons for compliance are consequentialist. As
many social scientists point out: in automobile traffic, we adhere to or accept as right and
proper traffic rules, in particular those relating to stopping, turning, etc. because without
them, we recognize that the situation would be chaotic, dangerous, even catastrophic.
Most technical rules, for example relating to operating machines or using tools, entail
inherent sanctions. Following them is necessary (or considered necessary) for the proper
functioning or performance of the technology, or achieving a certain desirable outcome
or solution.
7. veil of ignorance. Actors may not know the consequences of rule compliance and follow
rules because they are given, taken for granted, or believed generally to be right and
proper. The benefits of adhering to some rule systems can, however, mask hidden costs.
8. Habits, routines, and scripts. Much rule-following behavior is unreflective and routine.
Many social rules are unverbalized, tacit, that is, part of a collective subconscious of
strategies, roles, and scripts learned early in life or career, and reinforced in repeated
social situations, for instance sex roles, or even many professional roles. [5] Of particular
importance is the fact that rule systems learned in early socialization are associated with
very basic values and meanings even personal and collective identity motivating at a

deep emotional level commitment to the rules and a profound personal satisfaction in
enacting them. Conformity is then a matter of habitual, unreflected and taken-for-granted
ways of doing things.
As indicated above, some social rules are enforced, others not: indeed, rules can be distinguished
on the basis of the degree to which, and the circumstances under which, they are socially
enforced or enforceable. Of course, regardless of the degree of enforceability, they may be
complied with because of a desire for order, intrinsic sanctions, or realizing ones role and selfidentity. Many rules that actors rigorously adhere to are not socially enforceable, but
nevertheless actors utilize them in organizing social activities and in shaping social order. Harre
and Secord (1972:17) emphasize the freedom of choice in relation to rules and roles:
"The mechanistic model is strongly deterministic; the role-rule model is not. Rules are not laws,
they can be ignored or broken, if we admit that human beings are self-governing agents rather
than objects controlled by external forces, aware of themselves only as helpless spectators of the
flow of physical causality."

[edit] Social rule system theory and complex institutional

arrangements

A regular legislative senate is a complex institutional arrangement.

On meso- and macro-levels of analysis, social rule system theory is applied to the description
and analysis of institutions such as bureaucracy, markets, political systems, and science major
orders in modern societies (Burns and Flam, 1987; Carson, 2004; Flam and Carson, 2008;
Machado, 1998). This entails more than a study of social structure, or a contribution to neoinstitutionalism. It is a theory that analyses the links between social structure in the form of
particular institutional arrangements including role relationships, on the one hand, and social
action and social interaction, on the other. The theory shows, for example, in what ways markets
and bureaucracies are organized and regulated by social rules at the same time that actors, both
inside and outside these institutions, maintain or change the organizing principles and rules
through their actions and interactions. The actors involved in a given institution use their
institutional knowledge of relationships, roles, norms, and procedures to guide and organize their
actions and interactions. But they also use it to understand and interpret what is going on, to plan
and simulate scenarios, and to refer to in making commentaries and in giving and asking for

accounts. Rule system theory stresses rule-based cognitive processes such as framing,
contextualizing, and classifying objects, persons, and actions in a relevant or meaningful way
(Carson, 2004).[6] It also considers the production of appropriate or meaningful accounts,
discourses, and commentaries in the context of the given institution.
In line with the new institutionalism, social rule system theory stresses that particular institutions
and their organizational instantiations are deeply embedded in cultural, social, and political
environments and that particular structures and practices are often reflections of as well as
responses to rules, laws, conventions, paradigms built into the wider environment (Powell,
2007).

[edit] Rule system change and evolution

Institutional change entails changes in particular rule complexes and/or enforcement activities to
the effect that new or deviant patterns of action and interaction are generated and encouraged
(Burns and Flam, 1987; Levi, 1990). Social rule system theorists point to three major power
mechanisms of rule system reproduction and change to explain the evolution of social rule
systems and institutional arrangements (Burns and Carson, 2002; Burns and Dietz, 1992; Flam
and Carson, 2008; Stinchcombe, 1968): the selective action of the environment; the constraining
and facilitating conditions of institutional arrangements with their technologies, available
resources, and participants; and creative/destructive human agency.
Selective environments operate to bring about the successes of some rule structures and the
failure of others and, thereby, shifts in the prevalence of different forms. Rule system changes
may be also initiated by social agents. For instance, an elite "legislates" an institutional change,
or a social movement brings about change through coming to direct power or effectively
pressuring and negotiating with an established power elite. Changes are also brought about
through more dispersed processes, e.g. where one or more agents of a population discover a new
technical or performance strategy and others copy the strategy, and, in this way, the rule
innovation diffuses through social networks of communication and exchange. The introduction
by social agents of new rules and their expression in transformed patterns of action or in
innovative physical artifacts such as technologies and socio-technical infrastructures is a
major part of institutional change and evolution. In other words, institutionalized changes may be
brought about by the "selective forces" of social as well as physical environments or by the direct
action of social agents. This model of change is applicable to economic, political, administrative,
socio-technical, and scientific institutional arrangements (Burns, 2008).

[edit] Further reading

Berger, P. L. and T. Luckmann (1966), The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in

the Sociology of Knowledge, Anchor Books, Garden City, NY.
Burns, T. R., T. Baumgartner, and P. DeVille 1985 Man, Decision and Society. London:
Gordon and Breach.

Burns, T. R. and M. Carson 2002 Actors, Paradigms, and Institutional Dynamics. In: R.
Hollingsworth, K.H. Muller, E.J. Hollingsworth (eds) Advancing Socio-Economics: An
Institutionalist Perspective Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield.
Burns, T. R. and T. Dietz 1992 "Cultural Evolution: Social Rule Systems, Selection, and
Human Agency." International Sociology 7:250-283.
Burns, T. R. and T. Dietz 2001 Revolution: An Evolutionary Perspective. International
Sociology, Vol. 16, No. 4: 531-555.
Tom R. Burns and Helena Flam (1987). The Shaping of Social Organization: Social Rule
System Theory With Applications. London: Sage Publications.
Burns, T. R. and Gomoliska A. (2000) The Theory of Socially Embedded Games: The
Mathematics of Social Relationships, Rule Complexes, and Action Modalities. Quality
and Quantity: International Journal of Methodology Vol. 34(4):379-406.
Burns T.R., Roszkowska E. (2005) Generalized Game Theory: Assumptions, Principles,
and Elaborations Grounded in Social Theory, In Search of Social Order, Studies in
Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric, Vol. 8(21):7-40.
Carson, M. 2004 From Common Market to Social Europe?: Paradigm Shift &
Institutional Change in European Union Policy on Food, Asbestos & Chemicals, &
Gender Equality. Stockholm: Dept. of Sociology Stockholm University
Cicourel, A.V. 1974 Cognitive Sociology. New York: Free Press.
Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton. Reprint. Berlin and New
York (1985).
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Flam, H. and M. Carson (2008) Rule system Theory: Applications and Explorations.
Berlin/New York: Peter Lang.
Garfinkel, A. 1981. Forms of Explanation. Rethinking the Questions in Social Theory.
New Haven. Yale University Press
Giddens, A. 1984 The Constitution of Society. Oxford: Polity Press.
Goffman, E. 1974 Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience.
Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard University Press.
Gomoliska, A. (2002) Derivability of Rules From Rule Complexes. Logic and Logical
Philosophy, Vol.10:21-44
Gomoliska, A. (2004) Fundamental Mathematical Notions of the Theory of Socially
Embedded Games: A Granular Computing Perspective. In: S.K. Pal, L. Polkowski, and
A. Skowron (eds.) Rough-Neural Computing: Techniques for Computing with Words.
Springer-Verlag, Berlin/London, pp. 411434
Gomoliska, A. (2005) Toward Rough Applicability of Rules. In: B. Dunin-Keplicz,
A. Jankowski, A. Skowron, and M. Szczuka (eds.) Monitoring, Security, and Rescue
Techniques in Multiagent Systems. Springer-Verlag, Berlin/London,pp.. 203-214.
Harre, R. 1979 Social Being Oxford: Blackwell.
Harre, R. and P.F.Secord 1972 The Explanation of Social Behavior. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hodgson, Geofrey M. (2002). The Evolution of Institutions: An Agenda for Future
Theoretical Research. Constitutional Political Economy, pp. 111127
Levi, M. 1990 "A Logic of Institutional Change." In: K. S. Cook and M. Levi

(eds), The Limits of Rationality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Lindblom, C. E. 1977 Politics and Markets New York:Basic Books.

Lotman, J. 1975 Theses on the Semiotic Study of Culture. Lisse, Netherlands: Peter de
Ridder.
Luhmann, N. 1995. Social Systems. Translated by John Bednarz, with Dirk Baecker.
Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
Machado, N. 1998 Using the Bodies of the Dead: Organizational, Legal, and Ethical
Issues.
Machado, N. and T.R. Burns 1998 Complex Social Organization: Multiple Organizing
Modes, Structural Incongruence, and Mechanisms of Integration. Public Administration:
An International Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 2, pp. 355386.
March, J.R. and Olsen J.P. (1989) Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis
of Politics. New York: Free Press.
North, N.C. (1990) Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ostrom, E. (1990) Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective
Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Posner, R. 1989 "Toward a Semiotic Explication of Anthropological Concepts." In: W.
A. Koch (ed), The Nature of Culture. Bochum: Studienverlag Dr. Norbert Brockmeyer.
Powell, W.W. and DiMaggio P.J. (eds.) (1991) The New Institutionalism in
Organizational Analysis. Chicago: University Press.
Powell, W.W. 2007 " The New Institutionalism". In The International Encyclopedia of
Organization Studies The International Encyclopedia of Organization Studies. Thousand
Oaks, Ca.: Sage Publishers
Scott, W. R. (1995) Institutions and Organizations. London: Sage Publications.
Schmid, M. and Wuketits F.M. (eds) (1987) Evolutionary Theory in the Social Sciences.
Dordrecht: Reidel.
Twining, W. and D. Miers 1982 How to do Things with Rules? 2nd ed. London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Weber, M. 1951. The Religion of China. N.Y.:The MacMillan Company.
Wittgenstein, L. (1958) Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics. Oxford: Blackwell.

[edit] Footnotes
1. ^ Rules and rule configurations may be treated as mathematical objects (the mathematics
is based on contemporary developments at the interface of mathematics, logic, and
computer science) (Burns and Gomolinska, 2000; Gomolinska, 2002, 2004, 2005).
2. ^ . Lotman (1975) and Posner (1989) offer valuable semiotic perspectives with important
(not yet analyzed on our part) parallels.
3. ^ . There are not only role grammars but semantics and pragmatics. There are processes
of meaning, interpretation, and adaptation associated with rule application and
implementation.
4. ^ . To varying degrees actors collectively produce and reproduce patterns of appropriate
or acceptable possibilities. This can be conceptualized and mathematically developed as
an ideal point or collection of "approximations". Thus, a community of actors sharing a
rule complex recognize a wide variety of varying performances of a given rule as a
family of resemblances, or "the same thing. Both in this sense and in the sense that

social rules are never learned identically and undergo different rates of adaptation and
change over time the concept of rule, and of culture generally, is distributive.
5. ^ Human beings acquire and learn cultural rules and roles in part through being taught,
in part through observing and learning the patterns generated by others (that is, both
through verbal and non-verbal communication).
6. ^ In general, the cultural complex of rule systems contributes to making social life more
or less orderly and predictable and solves problems of "existential uncertainty" within the
group, organization, or community bearing and adhering to the rule culture (Burns and
Dietz, 1992; Garfinkel 1981; Luhmann, 1995). As suggested earlier, however, there is
always a tension and a dynamic between the regulated and the unregulated, order and
disorder (this is also pointed up in empirical studies such as found in Carson (2004) and
Machado (1998)).
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