Democracy and the Rule of Law

An international group of specialists from the fields of law, politics, economics, and philosophy address the question of why governments act or do not act according to laws. The authors interpret the rule of law as a strategic choice of actors with powerful interests, rather than as an exogenous constraint on politicians. The rule of law emerges when no group is strong enough to dominate the others, and political actors seek to resolve their conflicts by recourse to law. Law is thus deeply rooted in politics.

List of contributors; Acknowledgments; Introduction José María Maravall and Adam Przeworski; Part I: 1. Lineages of the rule of law Stephen Holmes; 2. Power, rules, and compliance Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca; 3. Obedience and obligation in the Rechtsstaat Michel Troper; 4. A postscript to 'Political foundations of democracy and the rule of law' Barry R. Weingast; 5. Why do political parties obey results of elections? Adam Przeworski; Part II: 6. The majoritarian reading of the 'rule of law' Roberto Gargarella; 7. How can the rule of law rule? Cost imposition through decentralized mechanisms Catalina Smulovitz; 8. Dictatorship and the rule of law: rules and military power in Pinochet's Chile Robert Barros; Part III: 9. Courts as instruments of horizontal accountability: the case of Latin Europe Carlo Guarnieri; 10. Rule of democracy and rule of law John Ferejohn and Pasquale Pasquino; 11. The rule of law as a political weapon José María Maravall; 12. The question of the rule of law in Michel de Montaigne's Essais Biancamaria Fontana; Author index; Subject index.