Institutional Isomorphism

             The Constitutive Power of the Law: An Inquiry into Legal Consciousness and Legalization
             Implementations of law are subject to discrepancies between intended and actual results (Garth & Sarat, 1998: 1). This discovery has prompted academics to shift the scope of social inquiry beyond mere black letter law into the legal void attempting to ascertain the extent of law's influence on individuals' legal consciousness and organizational legalization. Although the subjects of each inquiry differ, the purpose remains the same: how are the evolutionary processes of both individuals and organizations as social actors aligned, constructed and deconstructed in and under the law? To go about answering this question I will first augment the work of DiMaggio & Powel with Quinn's lecture material to explore bureaucratization, legalization, and the paradoxes of rationality and formality. Second I will delve into the works of Weber, Engel, and Calivita in an attempt to put fourth a generalized notion of legal consciousness and how it if affected by, compares, and contrasts to the process of legalization.
             To begin, in the article The Protestant Ethic the Spirit of Capitalism Weber supports the bureaucracy as a manifestation of the rational spirit driven by the inherent competitive nature of a capitalist society striving for efficiency (Weber, 1968). Bureaucracies have no doubt consumed corporate and state organizations; however modern bureaucratization comes not from direct market competition but rather an ideal imposed by the "state and the professions, which have become the great rationalizers of the late twentieth century" (Di Maggio & Powel, 1983: 147). However, to fully comprehend the notion of legalization we must first define the subjects of legalization, the organization; in doing so let us examine Weber's notion of a bureaucracy.
             According to Weber the modern bureaucracy is the most effective means to org...

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