Good, Bad, and 'Irritant' Laws in New Democracies

Abstract

This chapter explores reasons for numerous surprises and disappointments related to the use of law in building democracy and free media. Law was expected to constrain the possibilities for the arbitrary exercise of power (the rule of law), and to develop and enforce specific-purpose rules of the game fit for the salutary operation of the many complex domains and activities that make up a modern sociopolitical order, key among them the media and the polity. However, the reality has been more complicated and less attractive than some hoped. It is not surprising that bad laws have bad results. More interesting is when well-motivated laws and legal arrangements fail, as often they have. CEE is awash with legal experimentation designed precisely to allow free media to flourish. Apparently impeccable models are studied, emulated, transplanted, but they grow in very strange ways on foreign terrain. Show more