diff --git a/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb b/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
index dcc8277..4e242b7 100755
--- a/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
+++ b/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
@@ -2016,6 +2016,16 @@ module ActiveRecord #:nodoc:
           @@subclasses[self] + extra = @@subclasses[self].inject([]) {|list, subclass| list + subclass.subclasses }
         end
 
+        # Sets the default options for the model. The format of the
+        # <tt>method_scoping</tt> argument is the same as in with_scope.
+        #
+        #   class Person << ActiveRecord::Base
+        #     default_scope :find => { :order => 'last_name, first_name' }
+        #   end
+        def default_scope(method_scoping = {})
+          self.scoped_methods << method_scoping
+        end
+
         # Test whether the given method and optional key are scoped.
         def scoped?(method, key = nil) #:nodoc:
           if current_scoped_methods && (scope = current_scoped_methods[method])
diff --git a/activerecord/test/cases/method_scoping_test.rb b/activerecord/test/cases/method_scoping_test.rb
index ff10bfa..aa5c51b 100644
--- a/activerecord/test/cases/method_scoping_test.rb
+++ b/activerecord/test/cases/method_scoping_test.rb
@@ -522,6 +522,16 @@ class HasAndBelongsToManyScopingTest< ActiveRecord::TestCase
 end
 
 
+class DefaultScopingTest < ActiveRecord::TestCase
+  fixtures :developers
+
+  def test_default_scope
+    expected = Developer.find(:all, :order => 'salary DESC').collect { |dev| dev.salary }
+    received = DeveloperOrderedBySalary.find(:all).collect { |dev| dev.salary }
+    assert_equal expected, received
+  end
+end
+
 =begin
 # We disabled the scoping for has_one and belongs_to as we can't think of a proper use case
 
diff --git a/activerecord/test/models/developer.rb b/activerecord/test/models/developer.rb
index c08476f..0605903 100644
--- a/activerecord/test/models/developer.rb
+++ b/activerecord/test/models/developer.rb
@@ -77,3 +77,8 @@ class DeveloperWithBeforeDestroyRaise < ActiveRecord::Base
     raise if projects.empty?
   end
 end
+
+class DeveloperOrderedBySalary < ActiveRecord::Base
+    self.table_name = 'developers'
+    default_scope :find => { :order => "salary DESC" }
+end