ABSTRACT
Emile Durkheim (1893, 1897, 1912) argues that the preservation of norms is essential for achieving integration and solidarity in societies. Durkheimian legal theory focuses on law as a social control factor and an “external” index in the complex moral fabric of social life to help maintain society’s collective morality. In The Division o f Labor in Society (originally published in 1893), Durkheim described the rights of individuals in terms of obligations, sanctions, and morality. In his analysis of the two ideal types of societies, Durkheim (1893/1964) contends that mechanical solidarity is characterized by relatively undifferentiated social structure where there is little or no division of labor. Mechanical solidarity is one of the characteristics of primitive societies. Organic solidarity is obtained in modem societies. As a result of an increase in “dynamic density”,1 modem societies develop a complex division of labor. Organic solidarity is constituted by “collective conscious”, a belief shared by the whole community. According to Durkheim, collective conscious is a system of normative constraints that circumscribe individual behavior to the extent that it conforms to the general consensus and/or system of written rales.
