A Norm (n.) is an average standard created by the human sciences against which people are measured: The sane man, the law-abiding citizen, and the obedient child are all 'normal' people.
The Norm (n.) is, for Foucault, important for founding and playing a key role in the functioning of modern power. For habermas the norm demarcates the limits of power it distinguishes what is good and valid from what is not, where goodness and validity are determined and legitimized not by relations of power but by reason.
The Norm (n.) is not at all defined as a natural law but rather by the exacting and coercive role it can perform in the domains in which it is applied. The norm consequently lays claim to power.
The Norm (n.) is not simply and not even a principle of intelligibility. It is an element on the basis of which a certain exercise of power is founded and legitimized.
The Norm (n.) brings with it a principle of both qualification and correction. Its function is not to exclude and reject. Rather it is always linked to a positive technique of intervention and transformation, to a sort of normative project.
A Norm (n.) is used to evaluate and control. They also exclude those who cannot conform to 'normal' categories.