


































Advances in Politics and Economics 
ISSN 2576-1382 (Print) ISSN 2576-1390 (Online) 

Vol. 5, No. 3, 2022 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/ape 

111 
 

Original Paper 

Towards Well-Ordered Coutries? 

Jan-Erik Lane
1*

 

1
 Geneva University, Geneva, Switzerland 

* 
Jan-Erik Lane, Geneva University, Geneva, Switzerland

 

 

Received: July 16, 2022       Accepted: August 20, 2022      Online Published: August 23, 2022 

doi:10.22158/ape.v5n3p111        URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/ape.v5n3p111 

 

Abstract 

Globeliation has not only carried the negatives of climate change and energy shortages but also the 

positives of political stability and democracy. Now, what about this positive promise? Defining 

democracy as popular participation + rule of law, we can employ the large study of World Justice 

Project to reveal that well-ordered1 countries are in minority. 

Keywords 

Well-orderedness, rule of law, dictatorships, looting, legal systems 

 

1. Introduction 

In A Theory of Justice J. Rawls pictured the necessary background to the implementation of his 

principles of justice, namely the well-ordered society. Here there was actually a tautology, as Rawls 

used his 3 rules of justice to construct this well-ordered society. To be more precise, a well-ordered 

society fulfills two of his justice notions: freedom and impartiality. 

What caused much attention was Rawls’ third principle: maximin derived from a veil of ignorance. As a 

matter of fact, this is socialist equality involving considerable transfer payments and free public 

services. No country has ever tried the maximin strategy for social justice—to maximize the share of 

the least favored. This amounts to feasible equality, given losses from taxing the more favoured.  

In his later writings, Rawls never returned to socialist equality but emphasized political lliberalism. 

Nozick (1974) suggested that justice = property rights. 

Freedom, impartiality and equality are focused upon in theories of justice. In the well-ordered countries 

around the world it is freedom and impartiality that counts. 

Barry (1995) claims that justice is impartiality but this seems to hold for legal justice much more than 

for social justice. For instance, how about progressive taxation, central to  

social justice? Sen argues that Rawls’ notion of a state of veil of ignorance entails philosophical 

transcendentalism, but it merely posits a game of ignorance or uncertainty where a player does not 



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know whether he happens to be or become rich or poor. 

Now, how then to tell whether a country is well-ordered or not? Can one speak about degrees of 

well-ordered countries? Yes, by linking it up with the concept of rule of law. 

 

2. Rule of Law 

There is no neat and tidy definition of the expression ―rule of law‖. The Oxford English Dictionary 

offers the following entry: 

―[t]he authority and influence of law in society, especially when viewed as a constraint on individual 

and institutional behavior; (hence) the principle whereby all members of a society (including those in 

government) are considered equally subject to publicly disclosed legal codes and processes.‖ 

One may deconstruct this concept with other concepts or criteria like: 

1) Strong legal ⁰ promoting equality under the laws; 

2) Individual rights covering contract, free labour and private property as well as the joint stock 

company with bourses. 

3) Checks and balances, i.e., institutionalized mixed government with countervailing competences 

between executive, legislature and judiciary.  

 

3. Global Picture 

The World Justice Project (WJP) maps the existence of rule of law, unpacking a rule of law regime as 

follows: 

a) Constraints on Government Powers 

b) Absence of Corruption  

c) Open Government 

d) Fundamental Rights 

e) Order and Security 

f) Regulatory Enforcement 

g) Civil Justice 

h) Criminal Justice. 

The WJP underlines accountability, judicial independence, legal formalism and balance of power 

between executive and legislature.  

Table 1 presents results of the most recent survey of the RL Index for 138 countries around the world, 

presenting the mean value by region. 

 

 

 

 

 



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Table 1. Average RL Index by World Region by 2021 

Region Min Average Max 

East Asia & Pacific 0,32 0,60 0,83 

Eastern Europe & Central Asia 0,42 0,50 0,61 

EU + EFTA + North America 0,52 0,74 0,90 

Latin America & Caribbean 0,27 0,52 0,71 

Middle East & North Africa 0,35 0,49 0,64 

South Asia 0,35 0,44 0,52 

Sub-Saharan Africa 0,35 0,46 0,62 

Source: WJP 2021. 

 

The scores above are the results of numerous computations. For each aspect of rule of law a country is 

scored between 0 and 1, allowing a conclusion about more or less, which scores are then aggregated. 

 

4. Most Well-Ordered 

Here we find countries scoring between 0.9 and .75. The top well-ordered countries are all Nordic 

countries and the US comes lower at .69. Why? It may be pointed out that Western Europe, Australia, 

Canada and Uruguay come in between the Nordics and USA. 

Perhaps the comparison of the US with small Nordic countries is misplaced. All the large countries of 

the world perform worse than USA. The large West-European countries score above the US except 

Italy. 

 

5. The Ill-Ordered 

5.1 Country 

The WJ index mentions a large number of countries that score below .5. They are deficient in terms of: 

I) Accountability 

II) Just law 

III) Open government  

IV) Accessibility and impartial ity. 

One observes that the majority¹ of mankind lives ìn ill-ordered counties like Uzbekistan at .5, China at 

0.47, and Venezuela at very low 0.27. 

Many of the countries that are ill-ordered are Hobbesian, i.e. they are plagued by chaos or tribal 

conflicts. On the other hand, we also find firm dictatorships. 

In the set of ill-ordered countries we have dictatorships of all kinds. Today it is actually difficult to 

distinguish between ring-wing and left-wing authoritarian regimes. Take the case of Burma! 

 



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The ill-ordered countries are to be found in Latin America, Africa, Middle East and Asia as well as the 

Caribbean and the Pacific. However, there are clear exceptions: Costa Rica and Chile, Botswana and 

Namibia, Japan and South Korea for example. 

 

6. Coup D’Etat and Looting 

The road to ill-orneriness in suvsaharan Africa has been the making of coups. Once a country is the 

victim of a coup, this often happens repeatedly. There is no counterweighing force in African countries, 

except in a few well-ordered ones. 

Military coups is one plague, and the other one is long-term mismagemrnt by a too long sitting 

president, like in Congo, Zimbabwe ’and Sudan with the outcome of looting  

Modern dictatorships have a conspicuous economic face. It is driven by the search for material 

advantages like luxury lifestyle and the accumulation of wealth and properties. Nowhere is this 

motivation more apparent than in the former USSR and the Gulf monarchies.  

Let me call this human drive ―looting‖. It is closely connected with the orientation of dictators sand 

their entourage towards the family and kin. 

Max Weber writes in his famous article ―Politics as a vocation‖ that politics is all about power. No, I 

would say. In dictatorships economic benefits is the end and policy the means, whereas in political life 

economic policies are the means and power the end. 

The Weber focus is power, as ends and means. Nowhere does he talk about economic motives. Instead 

he opposes the ethics of righteousness with that of realism. 

 

7. Latin American Violenza 

Few countries jn Meso-America or South America score as well-ordered. On the contrary, they mostly 

come in at around .5 or lower. In fact, LA political history is much characterized by instability and 

outright violence, between counties or within them. Chile ranks high although the memory of Pinochet 

is still fresh. 

LA countries have a form of instability and disorder at the basic social level among the interactions of 

people. A few are drowning in gangster or mob violence, often related to drugs battles. It should be 

pointed out that the Caribbean has both well-ordered and ill- ordered countries. 

 

8. Kadi-Justiz 

None of the Muslim countries score as well-ordered; except the UAE? It is the quality of the legaj 

system in Dubai that renders such a high evaluation. Yet; the WJP puts open government at UAE 

tò .65 – hardly correct. That Muslim countries are ranked often as ill-ordered reflects the strong 

position of Sharia Law or Shia legal institutions. Law is what the Kadi and the Mufti arrive at in court, 

even when deviating from just law and impartiality.  

 



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Muslim countries are either dictatorships or in Hobbesian strife between Sunnis and Shias. Several are 

patrimonial belong to a ruling dynasty. 

 

9. Leninism 

Lenin outlined the state that would 1hat would assist economic development in its path towards its rnd 

state- from each according to capacity, to each sccotdong to need. It was a one pastry state – 

dictatorships of the proletariat. This was the centralised Soviet Union, adopted in one form or another 

in the countries where the Communist Party took power. 

The dictatorial state that Communism ushered in is ranked by the WJP as ill-ordered but because of its 

instability. The crux of the master is the political control of the judiciary. Socialist law is not guided by 

considerations of justice like Common Law and Civil Law. 

 

10. Politics, Economics and the Law 

Well-ordered countries are affluent meaning gdp per capita. Buy not all countries that ate not part of the 

set of wrll-ordered countries are to be found in the Hobbesian condition of povert4 and conflict. It is 

true that a few are in dire straits but several outside the set of well-ordered countries are neither poor 

nor instable. Figure 1 shows the relationship between the WJP index amd GDP per capita. 

 

 

Figure 1. GDP per Capita and WJP Index (World Bank 2022; WJP 2021) 

 

Affluence seems to be a necessary but not sufficient condition for well-orderedness. Culture also 



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matters: the legal system of the country must be either Common Law or Civil Law. Still; the most 

well-ordered countries in the world employ Scandinavian Law. It has not been exported except its 

Ombudsman. 

 

11. Conclusion  

Much of human suffering is due to a life under injustice or institutions which wrong the rights of men 

and women. This is the ill-ordered country without rule of law: accountability, just law open 

government and impartiality.  

We may add that well orderedness promotes trust – see Figure 2. 

 

 

Figure 2. Connection Justice and Trust (WJP 2021; Ortiz-Ospina & Troser, 2016) 

 

References 

Belton, C. (n.d.). Putin’s Peoplw. 

Barry, B. (1995). Justice as Impartiality. Oxford: OUP. 

Lenin, V. (1917). State and Revolution.  

Nozick, R. (1974). Anarchy, State and Utopia. New York: Basic Books. 

Sen, A. (2009). The Idea of Justice. Oxford: OUP. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674054578 

Esteban, Ortiz-Ospina., & Max, R. (2016). ―Trust‖. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved 

from https://ourworldindata.org/trust 

Weber, M. (1978). Economy and Society 1-2. Berkeley: University of California Press.  

World Bank Data Indicators. (2022). GDP per capita (current US$). Retrieved from 

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD  

World Justice Project. (2021). Rule of Law Index 2021. 

Washington D.C.. (n.n.). World Justice Project.  


