Democracy and the Rule of Law (Cambridge Studies in the Theory of Democracy)
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Book Description
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.
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This book addresses the question of why governments sometimes follow the law and other times choose to evade the law. The traditional answer of jurists has been that laws have an autonomous causal efficacy: law rules when actions follow anterior norms; the relation between laws and actions is one of obedience, obligation, or compliance. Contrary to this conception, the authors defend a positive interpretation where the rule of law results from the strategic choices of relevant actors. Rule of law is just one possible outcome in which political actors process their conflicts using whatever resources they can muster: only when these actors seek to resolve their conflicts by recourse to la, does law rule. What distinguishes 'rule-of-law' as an institutional equilibrium from 'rule-by-law' is the distribution of power. The former emerges when no one group is strong enough to dominate the others and when the many use institutions to promote their interest.
--This text refers to the
Digital
edition.
Democracy and the Rule of Law (Cambridge Studies in the Theory of Democracy),José María Maravall,Adam Przeworski,Cambridge University Press,0521532663,Congresses,Democracy,General,History & Theory - General,Law,Politics / Current Events,Rule of law,Comparative law,Political Science / History & Theory,Political science & theory,Political structures: democracy
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