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Social Experiments and the Habitual Force of Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Steven E. Rhoads
Steven E. Rhoads
Affiliation:
Government and Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia
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Abstract

Advocates of pervasive social experimentation neglect to consider the effect that suchexperimentation might have on citizens' respect for the law and their inclination to obey it. Since habit plays a large part in law abidingness, frequent alterations in law, even when substantively justified on narrow policy grounds, weaken the power of law in general. Because of their great utility, we should use social experiments occasionally when they can shed light on crucial dimensions of truly important policy questions. But because pervasive experimentation threatens law abidingness and citizen support for the regime, we should decide against some otherwise justifiable experiments and neither expect nor wish for the sort of experimenting society advocated by many social scientists.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , January 1987 , pp. 33 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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