An Exploratory Statistical Modeling Framework for National Rule-of-Law Profiles

Creative Commons License

Çelik S., Köroğlu M. A., Köroğlu C. Z.

ENTROPY, cilt.28, sa.942, ss.1-28, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 28 Sayı: 942
  • Basım Tarihi: 2026
  • Doi Numarası: 10.3390/e28090942
  • Dergi Adı: ENTROPY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO), Scopus, Materials Science & Engineering Collection (ProQuest), Technology Collection (ProQuest), Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), INSPEC, zbMATH, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1-28
  • Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
  • Uşak Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The rule of law can be considered as a multidimensional institutional phenomenon, which

emerges through interplay between legal, governance and administrative institutions. The

paper offers an exploratory statistical modeling approach to find empirical patterns in

national rule-of-law profiles according to the 2024 World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of

Law Index. Eight dimensions of the index are considered to identify differences between

countries and similarities of their multidimensional institutional performance. Principal

Component Analysis reveals strong associations between eight dimensions, which are

structured along the same performance institutional scale; the first principal component

explains 85.7% of the overall variation and two principal components explain 92.5% of

it. K-Means, hierarchical and DBSCAN clustering methods are then used to examine the

empirical similarities between countries. While the six-cluster solution of K-Means offers

distinct group descriptions, low bootstrap stability of this solution suggests that these

groups cannot be regarded as fixed rule-of-law regimes. In addition, the Random Forest

analysis reveals Regulatory Enforcement, Absence of Corruption, and Criminal Justice as

the three dimensions, which contribute to the empirical differentiation of the described

profiles the most. In general, the results imply that international variations in rule-of-law

performance are viewed as heterogeneous locations in a multidimensional institution space,

rather than as stable and distinct legal systems. The above-presented methodology allows

for an exploratory approach to analyze international variations in rule-of-law performance

that considers the limitations of cross-section data and instability of clusters.