Abstract
This article discusses the interrelations and the distinctions between permissiveness, patterned evasion and institutionalized evasions. All three are adaptive modes contributing to the functioning of normative systems, but they are distinct social phenomena, and each reflects a different systemic problem. Patterned evasion indicates impediments to the mechanisms of social control. Institutionalized evasions relieve tensions in the normative structure. Permissiveness helps the system to cope with a surfeit of normative regulations, but it also reduces the level of predictability in social interation. The various concepts are defined, and their etiology and inter-relations outlined in a theoretical model, based on Smelser's theory of collective behaviour. The model suggests that these phenomena are linked in a positive feedback cycle of increasing permissiveness. The conclusion is that societies with a permissive social climate will either develop functional alternatives to the conventional mechanisms of social control, or else run the risk of extreme social disorganization.
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