Are OECD Countries in a Rule of Law Recession?

Abstract This paper examines whether there is a rule of law recession among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This formal inquiry is motivated by the recent findings of a democratic recession across several countries with a long tradition of democratic values. I conduct both quantitative and qualitative analyses using the rule of law index from the World Justice Project, as well as different government and academic reports. Results show that, by and large, there is no rule of law recession among OECD member countries. Findings indicate that 12 out of the 28 OECD member countries analyzed in this paper continue to expand their level of adherence to the rule of law during the period 2014–2020. In fact, just as many OECD member countries have stable scores in their respective rule of law index. In contrast, only Turkey, Hungary, Korea, and Poland exhibit a rule of law recession.