Habitus, code et codification

Habitus, Code and Codification. Though it is precisely the vocation of sociology to point out that, in Montesquieu's phrase, «society is not changed by decree», the fact remains that awareness of the social conditions of the efficacy of juridical acts must not lead one to ignore or deny that which makes the specific efficacy of rules, regulations and laws. The justified reaction against juridism which makes it possible to restore their rightful place, in explaining practices, to the dispositions constituting the habitus, in non way implies that one should bracket off the intrinsic effect of an explicitly stated rule, especially when, like the juridical rule, it isassociated with sanctions. Conversely, while there is no doubt that law exerts a specific efficacy, attributable in particular to the work of codification, structured formulation, neutralization and systematization, which the professionals of symbolic work carry out in accordance with the specific laws of their universe, it is nonetheless the case that this efficacy, which is defined by opposition to pure and simple non-application or to application based on pure constraint, works only to the extent that law is socially recognized and meets a demand, albeit tacit and partial, because it corresponds, at least apparently, to real needs and interests.