>Actually, Charles, the empirical evidence is that
>people do obey the law because it's the law, and
>especially if it is passed by procedures they find
>acceptable:
one assumes you're not referring to people like ken lay and the US president, individuals in power who consider themselves "above the law" and above the people.
recently, articles about the wide extent psychopathic personalities seek and hold powerful positions in society were posted to LBO-talk. these are not people interested in the law except for what it helps them get out of other people.
i suggest there are class, experiential and racial differences not taken into consideration in the following studies. also, i can't imagine people understand law or "their system of justice." neither can i imagine a general populace reflecting on procedural justice, however that's defined. the next time a driver runs the red traffic light right in front of me, i'll try to focus on the mantra that people understand law and believe in it before continuing on my way.
one must hope people continue to believe in the "legitimacy" of authority and law despite evidence to the contrary, since the systemic defects aren't going to be rectified soon, if at all.
R
>Why People Obey the Law: Experimental Evidence from
>the Provision of Public Goods
>Lars Feld (feld at wiwi.uni-marburg.de)
>Jean-Robert Tyran (Jean-Robert.Tyran at unisg.ch)
>
>According to economists, severe legal sanctions deter
>violations of the law. According to legal scholars,
>people may obey law backed by mild sanctions because
>of norm-activation. We experimentally investigate the
>effects of mild and severe legal sanctions in the
>provision of public goods. The results show that
>severe sanctions almost perfectly deter free-riding.
>However, people also obey law backed by mild sanctions
>if it is accepted in a referendum. We show that voting
>for mild law induces expectations of cooperation, and
>that people tend to obey the law if they expect many
>others to do so.
>
>http://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_651.html
>
>Why People Obey the Law
>Author: Tom R. Tyler
>Publisher: Yale University Press, © 1990
>
>[Part One] Previous research suggests that citizens
>are interested in procedural justice but leaders
>emphasize an instrumental understanding. Leaders
>believe people obey laws because of the outcomes and
>therefore make laws and attach ever stiffer and more
>draconian penalties for breaking them. Citizens are
>not as much interested in outcomes as in the sense of
>fairness and equity they have in dealing with those
>who seek to make them comply with the law. The study
>reported here aimed at testing the conclusion that
>citizens are interested in procedural justice.
>
>Parts Two and Three present the data from an initial
>random sample of 1,575 respondents to a telephone
>interview of about 25 minutes. A year later a random
>subset of 804 respondents were reinterviewed. The
>questionnaires used in both interviews are included in
>an appendix to the book. These chapters discuss the
>results in relationship to the concept of legitimacy
>of authority. When authority is viewed as legitimate,
>compliance to the law increases.
>
>Part Four presents the results in terms of the concept
>of procedural justice. The data show a strong
>commitment to procedural justice on the part of the
>citizens. Part Five, Conclusions, states
>unequivocally that the normative issues matter.
>People understand their system of justice in terms
>unrelated to outcomes.
>
>http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume5/j5_2_br10.htm
>
>
> > From: andie nachgeborenen
> >
> >
> > -clip-
> > Law is free standing if what
> > makes a law legally legitimate, that is, binding
> > because it is the law, is itself a legal fact
> >
> >
> > ^^^
> > CB: Now there's a legal sentence.
> >
> > ^^
> >
> > > ^^^^^
> > CB: This is the reason that laws are legitimate to
> > whom ? There are not a
> > lot of people who think , "I must follow this law
> > because it was passed by
> > the best procedures humanly possible."
> >
> > Most people who have a personal conflict with a
> > particular law applied to
> > them,(i.e. who must do something that they don't
> > want to do) comply with
> > that law despite its adverse impact on their
> > interests, because they think
> > something bad is going to or is likely to happen to
> > them, like going to jail
>
>
>
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