Normativo

Normativo is an adjective used in Spanish and Portuguese to denote relation to norms, rules, or standards. Derived from norma (rule) and the suffix -tivo, it carries a prescriptive or regulatory sense: something that prescribes what should be done, which rules must be followed, or which policies regulate behavior.

In law and public policy, normative notions describe how laws ought to be structured, what rights should be protected, and what obligations states can impose. In normative ethics, they concern claims about how people ought to act, often organized into family of theories such as deontological or consequentialist approaches. In linguistics and education, normative or prescriptive grammar prescribes standard language usage, contrasting with descriptive linguistics that documents actual speech.

Normativity also appears in social sciences and philosophy as a broader concept of norm-based evaluation, including social norms, professional standards, and regulatory frameworks. A normative statement asserts value judgments about what ought to be true or desirable, for example that individuals ought to respect others' rights or that emissions should be reduced, whereas descriptive statements report observed facts.

The term can have a regulatory nuance in government documents and compliance contexts, where normative rules define required conduct or performance criteria. Overall, normativo captures the idea of norms that guide or constrain behavior across disciplines.