Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-31T12:13:45.521Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Measuring the Rule of Law: A Comparison of Indicators

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Mila Versteeg  and
Tom Ginsburg
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The rule of law era has given rise to multiple indicators purporting to measure the concept. This article compares four major indicators of the rule of law and shows that their approaches to conceptualization and measurement differ. Given their disparate conceptualizations and measurement strategies, one might expect a weak correlation between them. Strikingly, however, all four indicators are highly correlated with each other (with the pair-wise correlations between three of them exceeding 0.95). They are also correlated with the widely used measure of corruption. This suggests that the indicators might capture a more encompassing concept, like impartial administration. The article critiques the rule of law measurement enterprise as insufficiently linked to the underlying normative concept. It points to the reliance on expert perceptions and information constraints as a possible cause for the convergence. It concludes that measurement strategy, rather than differences in conceptualization, explains the convergence between the indicators.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , Winter 2017 , pp. 100 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Arndt, Christiane, and Oman, Charles. 2006. The Uses and Abuses of Governance Indicators. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Bauer, Joanne, and Bell, Daniel. 1999. The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Berkowitz, Daniel, Pistor, Katarina, and Richard, Jean‐Francois. 2003. The Transplant Effect. American Journal of Comparative Law 51:163–203.Google Scholar
Brooks, Rosa. 2003. The New Imperialism: Violence, Norms, and the “Rule of Law.” Michigan Law Review 101 (7): 2275–2340.Google Scholar
Casper, Gretchen, and Tufis, Claudiu D. 2003. Correlation Versus Interchangeability: The Limited Robustness of Empirical Findings on Democracy Using Highly Correlated Datasets. Political Analysis 11 (2): 196–203.Google Scholar
Chilton, Adam S. and Versteeg, Mila. 2015. The Failure of Constitutional Torture Prohibitions. Journal of Legal Studies 44 (2): 1–37.Google Scholar
Davis, Kevin E. 2004. What Can the Rule of Law Variable Tell Us About Rule of Law Reforms? Michigan Journal of International Law 26:141–61.Google Scholar
Davis, Kevin E. 2014. Legal Indicators: The Power of Quantitative Measures of Law. Annual Review of Law and Social Science 10:37–52.Google Scholar
Emmerson, Donald K. 1995. Singapore and the “Asian Values” Debate. Journal of Democracy 6 (4): 95–105.Google Scholar
Fariss, Christopher. 2014. Respect for Human Rights Has Improved Over Time: Modeling the Changing Standard of Accountability. American Political Science Review 108 (2): 297–318.Google Scholar
Fisman, Raymond, and Miguel, Edward. 2007. Corruption, Norms, and Legal Enforcement: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Tickets. Journal of Political Economy 115 (6): 1020–48.Google Scholar
Freedom House. 2014a. About Us. http://www.freedomhouse.org/about-us#.VBhuvlbXHG4 (accessed November 2014).Google Scholar
Freedom House. 2014b. Freedom in the World 2014: Methodology. http://www.freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/Methodology%20FIW%202014.pdf (accessed November 2014).Google Scholar
Fuller, Lon. 1969. The Morality of Law. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Gerring, John. 2001. Social Science Methodology: A Criterial Framework. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, Tom. 2011. Pitfalls of Measuring the Rule of Law. Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 3 (2): 269–80.Google Scholar
Goertz, Gary. 2006. Social Science Concepts: A User's Guide. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gutmann, Jerg, and Voigt, Stefan. 2014. Mapping the Road to Freedom—The Correlates and Roots of the Rule of Law. Manuscript on file with authors.Google Scholar
Hadfield, Gillian, and Weingast, Barry. 2014. Microfoundations of the Rule of Law. Annual Review of Political Science 17:21–42.Google Scholar
Haggard, Stephan, MacIntyre, Andrew, and Tiede, Lydia. 2008. The Rule of Law and Economic Development. Annual Review of Political Science 29:205–34.Google Scholar
Haggard, Stephan, and Tiede, Lydia. 2011. The Rule of Law and Economic Growth: Where Are We? World Development 39 (5): 673–85.Google Scholar
Hardin, Russell. 2013. Why a Constitution? In The Social and Political Foundations of Constitutions, ed. Galligan, Denis and Versteeg, Mila, 51–72. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. A. 1944. The Road to Serfdom. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. A. 1960. The Constitution of Liberty. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Heritage Foundation. 2014a. About Heritage. http://www.heritage.org/about (accessed November 2014).Google Scholar
Heritage Foundation. 2014b. Freedom from Corruption. http://www.heritage.org/index/freedom-from-corruption (accessed November 2014).Google Scholar
Heritage Foundation. 2014c. Property Rights. http://www.heritage.org/index/property-rights (accessed November 2014).Google Scholar
Jensenius, Francesca Refsum, and Wood, Abby. 2014. Caught in the Act But Not Punished: Why the Rule of Law Is Key to Effective Deterrence. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Joireman, Sandra F. 2004. Colonization and the Rule of Law: Comparing the Effectiveness of Common Law and Civil Law Countries. Constitutional Political Economy 15 (4): 315–38.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, Daniel, Kraay, Aart, and Mastruzzi, Massimo. 2010. The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Methodology and Analytical Issues. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 5430. Washington, DC: World Bank. http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/pdf/WGI.pdf (accessed November 2014).Google Scholar
Kurtz, Marcus J., and Schrank, Andrew. 2007. Growth and Governance: Models, Measures, and Mechanisms. Journal of Politics 69 (2): 538–54.Google Scholar
la Porta, Rafael, Lopez‐de‐Silanes, Florencio, Shleifer, Andrei, and Vishny, Robert W. 1998. Law and Finance. Journal of Political Economy 106 (6): 1113–55.Google Scholar
Law, David S., and Versteeg, Mila. 2013. Sham Constitutions. California Law Review 101:863–951.Google Scholar
Mahoney, Paul. 2001. The Common Law and Economic Growth: Hayek Might Be Right. Journal of Legal Studies 30 (2): 503–25.Google Scholar
Malik, Adeel. 2002. State of the Art in Governance Indicators. In Human Development Occasional Papers (1992–2007) New York: UN Development Programme.Google Scholar
Marshall, Monty G., Gurr, Ted Robert, and Jaggers, Keith. 2014. Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800–2013: Dataset Users' Manual. Polity IV Project. http://www.systemicpeace.org/inscr/p4manualv2013.pdf (accessed November 2014).Google Scholar
Merry, Sally. 2011. Measuring the World: Indicators, Human Rights, and Global Governance. Current Anthropology 52 (S3): S83–S95.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally. Forthcoming. The Seductions of Quantification: Global Governance and Indicators of Human Rights, Violence Against Women, and Sex Trafficking. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
M⊘ller, J⊘rgen, and Skaaning, Svend‐Erik. 2011. On the Limited Interchangeability of Rule of Law Measures. European Political Science Review 3 (3): 371–94.Google Scholar
M⊘ller, J⊘rgen, and Skaaning, Svend‐Erik. 2014. The Rule of Law: Definitions, Measures, Patterns and Causes. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Nardulli, Peter F., Peyton, Buddy, and Bajjalieh, Joseph. 2013. Conceptualizing and Measuring Rule of Law Constructs, 1850–2010. Journal of Law and Courts 1:139–92Google Scholar
Priest, George L., and Klein, Benjamin. 1984. The Selection of Disputes for Litigation. Journal of Legal Studies 13 (1): 1–55.Google Scholar
Rajah, Jothie. 2015. Rule of Law as a Transnational Legal Order. In Transnational Legal Orders, ed. Halliday, Terrence and Shaffer, Gregory, 340–73. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Raz, Joseph. 1979. The Rule of Law and Its Virtue. In The Authority of Law: Essays on Law and Morality, ed. Raz, Joseph, 211–29. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rodriguez, Daniel, McCubbins, Mathew, and Weingast, Barry. 2010. The Rule of Law Unplugged. Emory Law Journal 59:1455–94.Google Scholar
Rothstein, Bo. 2011. The Quality of Government: Corruption, Social Trust, and Inequality in International Perspective. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rothstein, Bo. 2014. What Is the Opposite of Corruption? Third World Quarterly 35 (5): 737–52.Google Scholar
Skaaning, Svend‐Erik. 2010. Measuring the Rule of Law. Political Research Quarterly 63 (2): 449–60.Google Scholar
Tamanaha, Brian. 2004. On the Rule of Law: History, Politics, Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tamanaha, Brian. 2008. The Dark Side of the Relationship Between Rule of Law and Liberalism. NYU Journal of Law and Liberty 33:516–47.Google Scholar
Tamanaha, Brian. 2011. The Primacy of Society and the Failures of Law and Development. Cornell International Law Journal 44:209–47.Google Scholar
Teorell, Jan, Dahlström, Carl, and Dahlberg, Stefan. 2011. The QoG Expert Survey Dataset. Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg, Quality of Government Institute.Google Scholar
Thomas, Melissa. 2010. What Do the Worldwide Governance Indicators Measure? European Journal of Development Research 22 (1): 31–54.Google Scholar
Transparency International. 2013a. Corruption Perceptions Index 2013: Full Source Descriptions. http://www.transparency.org/files/content/pressrelease/2013_CPISourceDescription_EN.pdf (accessed November 2014).Google Scholar
Transparency International. 2013b. Corruption Perceptions Index 2013: In Detail. http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2013/in_detail/#myAnchor1 (accessed November 2014).Google Scholar
Weingast, Barry. 1997. The Political Foundations of Democracy and the Rule of Law. American Political Science Review 91 (2): 245–63.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2014. Worldwide Governance Indicators. http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.aspx#doc-methodology (accessed November 2014).Google Scholar
World Justice Project (WJP). 2014. The World Justice Project Rule of Law Index 2014. http://worldjusticeproject.org/sites/default/files/files/wjp_rule_of_law_index_2014_report.pdf (accessed November 2014).Google Scholar
Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964).Google Scholar
Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964).Google Scholar