7 - Profiting from the Rule of Law

Summary

The legal system under the rule of law binds authority. Problematically, however, this same authority, which is supposed to be limited, creates and applies the law. The rule of law requires that the ruled and ruler be subject to the same law. “It just happens” in illiberal democracy that this same law favors the ruler. Here is where illiberal democracies depart from constitutional democracies. Of course, bending the law occurs often in the latter, but this is not systematic, and even if it were, there are effective (legal) means of correction. If such correction fails this is sufficiently known, demonstrated, and condemned, and once legal self-correction fails, democracy may provide it by electing more rule of law-committed rulers. That is not the case in illiberal democracies, where for purposes of power aggrandizement the authorities will twist legal structures, including application of the law. This does not mean that laws will fail to protect expectations nor that results cannot be foreseeable, but that they enable bias and favoritism, in violation of equality and reasonableness.