{"id":84519,"date":"2022-11-16T14:40:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T18:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=84519"},"modified":"2022-11-28T16:15:42","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T20:15:42","slug":"why-is-the-rule-of-law-important-to-modern-democracies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-is-the-rule-of-law-important-to-modern-democracies\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is the Rule of Law Important to Modern Democracies?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Why is the rule of law important to modern democracies? Where does it come from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A major component of modern liberal democracy is the rule of law. Francis Fukuyama explains where the rule of law comes from, how it affects the political order, and how its absence (or weakness) leads to authoritarianism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more for a discussion about the rule of law and its importance to society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-is-the-rule-of-law\">What Is the Rule of Law?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Fukuyama defines the rule of law as the authority of <em>law<\/em> over <em>legislation<\/em>. In this context, <em>law<\/em> refers to the abstract principles of justice and order accepted by a community, whereas <em>legislation <\/em>refers to the creation and application of specific judicial rules. For example, many contemporary states have constitutions (law) that define certain fundamental human rights and prohibit any policies (legislation) that would violate those rights.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Fukuyama\u2019s distinction between \u201claw\u201d and \u201clegislation\u201d conflicts with the more commonly accepted definition of \u201clegislation\u201d as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/legislation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">procedure by which a lawmaking body creates and implements new laws<\/a>. However, the basic principles Fukuyama describes line up with typical definitions of \u201cthe rule of law\u201d as <a href=\"https:\/\/plato.stanford.edu\/entries\/rule-of-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">adherence to a set of publicly known and agreed-upon norms that apply equally to everyone<\/a>\u2014even the highest leaders in the land. Put simply, the rule of law means that there are rules governing how rulers can rule.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fukuyama argues that <strong>the rule of law typically comes from a culture\u2019s religion<\/strong>. He asserts that, in India and Western Europe, religious law (in the form of Indian Brahmanism and European Catholicism) shaped society before states ever emerged. Similarly, he argues that, in the Islamic Middle East, religion and the state arose together, resulting in an Islamic state called a <em>caliphate<\/em>, in which a religious leader (a caliph) places checks on secular political authority. In all of these cases, <strong>leaders were bound by the idea that there was a divine law by which human law had to abide<\/strong>. As a result, leaders in these cultures had at least nominal checks on their power, and their legitimacy depended on their adherence to the rule of law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: The possible religious basis of the rule of law is reflected in the fact that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/erasmus\/2013\/05\/13\/in-god-some-trust\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">many national constitutions refer explicitly to God or specific religions<\/a>. Similarly, even though the European Union\u2019s proposed constitution ultimately rejected any explicit references to faith, it begins with a clause citing the <a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/LexUriServ\/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2004:310:0003:0010:EN:PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201ccultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe\u201d as the basis for the rule of law<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-why-is-the-rule-of-law-important\">Why Is the Rule of Law Important?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Why is the rule of law important to modern democracies? Fukuyama points out that a strong rule of law is important because <strong>it constrains government power<\/strong>. To say a society is bound by the rule of law is to say that governments and rulers don\u2019t have absolute authority to do whatever they want\u2014instead, their actions and decisions are legitimate only if they abide by the overarching law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: In this way, the rule of law provides the distinction between monarchy and despotism\u2014two forms of government based on rule by a single person. According to 18th-century political philosopher Baron de Montesquieu, <a href=\"https:\/\/oll.libertyfund.org\/title\/montesquieu-complete-works-vol-1-the-spirit-of-laws\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a despotic leader wields absolute power and rules by fear, whereas a monarch is constrained by law and rules by honorable submission to the state<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because the rule of law limits governmental powers, it naturally follows that, <strong><em>without<\/em> the rule of law, governments tend toward authoritarianism<\/strong>\u2014a system of government by an unrestrained, often oppressive central leadership that isn\u2019t subject to checks and balances, opposing parties, or legitimate elections. Fukuyama gives China as an example of a culture where this tendency has existed historically and survives today. He says that the Chinese state religion never developed beyond ancestor worship. As a result, there was never a sense of a higher law by which Chinese rulers had to abide. Chinese rulers answered only to themselves\u2014<strong>in effect, their policies <em>were <\/em>the supreme law<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Though Fukuyama suggests that China\u2019s history of authoritarian rule <em>prevented <\/em>the state from developing democratic institutions, in the late 20th century, Chinese political theorists debated whether authoritarianism was actually a <em>path to<\/em> democracy. A school of thought known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/2644692\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">neo-authoritarianism took democracy as its end goal, but argued that getting there required a strong central government<\/a> to dictate economic and social policy until society was stable enough to stand on its own. Scholars note tha<a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/chapter\/10.1057\/9781137427816_3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">t Chinese head of state Xi Jinping, who took office in 2013, appears to have based his rule on neo-authoritarian ideas<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why is the rule of law important to modern democracies? Where does it come from? A major component of modern liberal democracy is the rule of law. Francis Fukuyama explains where the rule of law comes from, how it affects the political order, and how its absence (or weakness) leads to authoritarianism. Read more for a discussion about the rule of law and its importance to society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":84522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,275,24],"tags":[811],"class_list":["post-84519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-politics","category-society","tag-the-origins-of-political-order","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Is the Rule of Law Important to Modern Democracies? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A major aspect of modern liberal democracies is the rule of law. 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Learn why the rule of law is important in a world where tyranny threatens.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-is-the-rule-of-law-important-to-modern-democracies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-16T18:40:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-28T20:15:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/constitution.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-is-the-rule-of-law-important-to-modern-democracies\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-is-the-rule-of-law-important-to-modern-democracies\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\"},\"headline\":\"Why Is the Rule of Law Important to Modern Democracies?\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-16T18:40:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-28T20:15:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-is-the-rule-of-law-important-to-modern-democracies\/\"},\"wordCount\":768,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-is-the-rule-of-law-important-to-modern-democracies\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/constitution.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Origins of Political Order\"],\"articleSection\":[\"History\",\"Politics\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-is-the-rule-of-law-important-to-modern-democracies\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-is-the-rule-of-law-important-to-modern-democracies\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-is-the-rule-of-law-important-to-modern-democracies\/\",\"name\":\"Why Is the Rule of Law Important to Modern Democracies? - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-is-the-rule-of-law-important-to-modern-democracies\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-is-the-rule-of-law-important-to-modern-democracies\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/constitution.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-16T18:40:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-28T20:15:42+00:00\",\"description\":\"A major aspect of modern liberal democracies is the rule of law. 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