The Relationship between Constitutions, Socioeconomics, and the Rule of Law: A Quantitative Thermodynamic Approach

Based on what we know about the thermodynamics of synergy, we explored the relationship between countries’ sociocultural order (negentropy), as estimated by their constitutions, academic development, and national indicators of their rule of law and free energy (specifically, their amount of useful work, productivity, and socioeconomic health). An analysis of the 219 indicators assessed in this study revealed strong correlations between estimates of the rule of law and the number of national academic publications with socioeconomic health indicators (i.e., GDP, the Human Development Index, and infant mortality). In contrast, correlations with the length of constitutions (the numbers of words and articles) indicate that the proliferation of legal rules hinders the rule of law and socioeconomic development, and that underdevelopment and/or insufficient enforcement of national laws fosters the proliferation of legal rules. These findings suggest that no one order favors productivity and that excessive regulation and central tutelage increase social entropy and decrease socioeconomic health. https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.02094