Basics of the Consensus Perspective
This perspective views law as a neutral framework that maintains social order.
What is the consensus perspective?
The scholar who said law tries to "harmonize" and "adjust" overlapping interests.
Who is Roscoe Pound?
Consensus theory says law exists mainly to maintain this.
What is social order?
Consensus theory emphasizes cooperation, integration, and this social quality.
What is solidarity?
Consensus theory sees these groups as important, even when they disagree.
What are interest groups?
Consensus theory believes society is held together by these two things.
What are shared values and general agreement?
Pound believed law develops over time to recognize a widening range of these.
What are human wants, interests, and claims?
This phrase describes law as an unbiased rule system created by representatives.
What is “law as a neutral agent”?
Groups may disagree but still share this underlying foundation.
What is common values/culture?
Interest groups’ conflicting desires must be handled through this.
What is compromise?
Consensus theorists believe interest groups sometimes conflict but are mostly in this state.
What is basic harmony?
According to Pound, law aims to ensure these for society.
What are social order and the common good?
In consensus thinking, law dispenses these two things without bias.
What are rewards and punishments?
Reconciliation of different interests is necessary for this societal outcome.
What is maintaining social order?
Consensus theory sees law as representing which group’s interests?
What is society as a whole?
This concept explains how different groups' interests are balanced under consensus theory.
What is social compromise?
Pound argued law does not force one group’s values but instead does this.
What is mediating diverse interests?
Law promotes the “scheme of interests as a whole,” meaning it prioritizes this.
What benefits the entire society?
Interest groups are essential for society’s well-being because they do this.
What is help manage and express diverse needs?
Over time, law grew to cover more areas because human interests became more what?
What is more diverse/complex?
Consensus theory argues law is a tool for this long-term purpose in society.
What is maintaining stability/integration?
Pound said law must balance what two competing elements?
What are individual interests and the interests of society as a whole?
Consensus theorists argue law protects society by reconciling these.
What are conflicting individual and group interests?
Early laws were created to satisfy which broad human category?
What are social wants and claims?
Lawmakers in the consensus view are said to act for this broad group.
What are the people or society as a whole?