Law and Development emulation by developing nations, albeit with a lag to allow for
evolution to do its work. This is even more alluring when to do so happens to foster our
national interest in shaping foreign markets in ways that will be congenial to Western capital
and our own national firms in particular. To avoid this fallacy, the new law and development
should be tentative, situational, and dialogic. We should be careful not to project our own
past on others and idealize our own society. We should seek to develop knowledge only in�…

This article examines aspects of the history of the concept of habit in Western social thought.
As an expression, the concept of habit has generally referred to a disposition to act as one
has previously acted, whether in regard to simple behaviors, more complex forms of
conduct, or broader characterological tendencies (habitus). Among social thinkers who have
used the concept, habit has generally been applied to recurrent forms of moral, economic,
political, and religious conduct insofar as these occur more or less automatically, thus�…