ainst the accusation. The fifth principle is meant to bind those who are governed, as well as the government, to the rule of law. In other words, the people are sovereign only to the extent that neither they nor their rulers may function outside the law. What these principles essentially do is set the scope and limit of the legal authority under which civil society can function and remain stable. Thus the rule of law is conceived as an alternative to arbitrary government in principle as well as a check on corrupt government in fact. As well, it is a buffer against what could be called a corrupt population, so that it is the law, not the sovereign people, that determines how violations against the rule are to be handled. As Altman puts it, "concern with controlling through law both government corruption and private vengeance runs through Western history from ancient to modern times" (9).
According to Altman, the rule of law in the modern period has not been particularly at issue regarding how civil society is to be organized, as if commitment to law and the social stability that it implies are givens of modern civil structures. But, he says, the relationship between individuals and the structure of governance within their civil society has been at issue in the modern period. He distinguishes between ancient and modern concepts of liberty, the former referring to the freedom to participate politically and the latter to freedom from government interference in their activities.
It might be argued that government threats to individual liberty are not conceptually different from arbitrary government in the more general sense and could therefore be assumed to be part of the general heading. However, Altman's discussion of how conceptions of liberty (
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