Why Developing Countries Prove So Resistant to the Rule of Law

Why do developing countries prove so resistant to the rule of law? The problem is all the more paradoxical because the institutional technologies for providing the rule of law – systems of property rights, civil rights, and personal liberties, general incorporation laws, corporate governance structures, contract law, and judicial systems – is relatively well-known. To address these questions, I draw on the new approach developed by North, Wallis, and Weingast (2008) – NWW – to suggest how the rule of law emerged in the West and then use this framework to show why the rule of law cannot readily be transplanted into developing countries.