1. Vitaliy Belevich
POSC 7011
Essay #1
Due Date: September 30, 2013
Rule of Law as a Foundation of Democracy
Aristotle once stated: “The Rule of Law is fundamental to Western democratic order.” I
agree with his statement. The law serves as a foundation and the building block of any
democratic order. In the Western democracies, laws emanate from the people and are supposed
to serve the people. The Miriam Webster Dictionary defines law as: “A rule of conduct or action
established by custom or laid down and enforced by a governing authority; also the whole body
of such rules.”1 The same dictionary defines the word democracy as: “Government by the
people, esp. rule of the majority.”2 In light of the definitions above, the rule of law means the
enforcement and obedience of the laws by those who live under it and for punishing, correcting
and rehabilitating those who violate the established laws, and for compensating those who are
harmed. Laws also serve as a mean for government's authority. The ultimate power, however,
rests with the people who democratically elect their rulers and representatives who establish laws
using the agreed-upon laws and processes. Courts serve to uphold the laws and to review and to
strike out any unjust laws.
Given the inherent and unavoidable conflicts between social groups and the self-interest
of the individuals, the rule of law allows people to self-govern, thus establishing a basic
mechanism for the western democracy. The rule of law establishes foundations that let people
peacefully come together in order to set up boundaries for what is and is not allowed and to
ensure proper order without having a higher authority such as a dictator or a king. Laws also set
1 The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 1997, p. 422
2 Ibid, p. 207

2. 2
defined boundaries for the democratically elected rulers, punishing those rulers who transgress
them. This is critical in maintaining order and ensuring that those with power do not abuse it or
even usurp it. Further, in the absence of the established rule of law, democracy would not be
possible because people would never come together and live peacefully side-by-side since, by
definition of democracy, there is no higher authority other than majority of the people that relies
on use of force. If there is no democratic order, the society would either decay into anarchy, or
an authoritarian ruler (or an authoritarian group) relying on an ideology would wield the power.
Western democratic society would not be able to function without laws in place. The
concept of private property ownership and the protections granted to the owners are very
important to the democratic order. For example, an individual can own property such as a land
plot with a house. If someone tried to seize it unjustly by coming to the owner's house and
forcefully evicting him and seizing his property, the person who committed this offense would
be prosecuted for the assault and trespassing. The land plot would be restored to its rightful
owner. Absent the rule of law, crimes such as these would go unpunished, and the strong would
wrongly subjugate the weak. As a result the order would be violated, and the society would not
be able to function.
In addition, society is never perfect. The government ensures that the society is run
smoothly. As the society become more complex, unfortunately, so do the laws that govern it.
The United States is, perhaps, a good example of a modern Western democratically governed
country. American society relies on laws to regulate itself, and the government needs laws in
order to have the authority to rule. An example of how the government used laws to reform the
economy provides a piece of evidence on how the laws are used to maintain and preserve the
society.

3. 3
Some argue that the Great Depression was partially caused by the lack of regulations in
the banking sector in which banks could function as both the commercial banks that lend money
and accept deposits and as the investment banks involved in making the financial investments,
namely underwrite and issue securities.3 As a result of this, some argue that banks were making
money by both engaging in investments and by lending money to investors; thus, encouraging
and causing heavy speculations by the investors. In the end, these speculations caused the
“bubble” and eventual market’s crash in 1929 contributing to the decade-long economic demise
known as the Great Depression. Many Americans have experienced severe hardship.4 The
society was indeed shaken to its core. During the Great Depression, the democratically elected
Congress has passed an act reforming the banking system. The Glass–Steagall Act separated
commercial and investment banks in order to prevent the abuses that caused the bubble, and the
establishment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has protected depositors’ accounts.5
Similarly, some would argue that lack of oversight in the dealings of the investment
banks, rating agencies, insurers and borrowers has led do a bubble in a housing market that has
brought it down leading to a Great Recession in 2008, in which many people lost their homes.
Similarly, Congress has responded by passing the The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act. This act was designed to prevent the future abuses and to attempt to
fix the problems that led to the recession.6 In both scenarios, the laws established greater
oversight in the dealings of the financial markets participants in order to save and preserve a
3 Stock Market Crash of 1929. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market_crash_of_1929 Accessed 29
Sept. 2013
4 Brockman, Joshua. “Death Of The Brokerage: The Future Of Wall Street.” NPR.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94894707 Accessed 29 Sept. 2013
5FDIC. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fdic Accessed 29 Sept. 2013
6 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodd%E2%80%93Frank_Wall_Street_Reform_and_Consumer_Protection_Act
Accessed 29 Sept. 2013

4. 4
working financial system, which is so important to the Western democracies today. One can see
that without laws in place, the U.S. government would not be able to create new laws and to
ensure the society’s financial order is maintained. In both scenarios the democratically elected
government was able to intervene in order to save and preserve economic stability, and also to
pass the reform in order to change the behavior of those who abused the system.
In western democracies laws emanate from the people and serve the people as opposed to
dictatorships, in which the ruler has the ultimate authority. For example, even though there are
nominal laws in North Korea, the actual power rests with a dictator, who relies on force,
intimidation, ideology and subjugation. In the absence of established and enforced laws, all
power comes from one unwise ruler, who through sheer intimidation, imprisonments, fear, war
mongering, and arrests keeps his rule. As a result, the whole society is subjugated to the will of
the few.
In the absence of the laws, different social groups would try to dominate one another as
seen with the frightening civil war in Syria, which causes the massive loss of life. In Syria, the
ultimate authority and power rested with now-embattled president Bashar Assad and the ruling
elite until an opposition protested his rule and demanded reforms in the wake of the Arab Spring.
In turn, the ruler used violent forces to quash the protests and to intimidate those who would
protest his rule. The resulting sectarian violence caused the debacle of the Syrian state and an
ongoing sectarian civil war.7 In the absence of laws, a vacuum of power has been created since
some groups refused to obey the dictator choosing to fight him instead. While different social
groups were living peacefully under his dictatorial rule, the country fell into the sectarian
quagmire, where all humanitarian norms disappeared and the government used chemical
7Syrian Civil War. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_civil_war Accessed 29 Sept. 2013

5. 5
weapons against its own citizens. Syria provides a gory example of what can happen when the
authoritarian ruler loses his power, and when there are no laws to govern groups of people who
have conflicting ideologies and views.
I wanted to raise just a few examples of the intrinsic necessity of rules through which
people establish their relationship in the democratic order. Its absence can be truly tragic for the
people. This is a very broad and intricate philosophical question, which can be discussed from
many perspectives. To summarize, the rule of law is an essential foundation for a western
democracy because laws allow the democratically-elected government to rule effectively keeping
the unjust behavior in check, while resting the ultimate authority with the people.