ABSTRACT
This chapter uses a narrative of political history to flesh out more concretely the ongoing analogy between judicial and non-judicial rationalising institutions that underpins my argument linking meta regulation and the rule of law. The inevitably selective historical narrative presented in this chapter highlights functional analogies between developments in public law on the one hand and in political economy on the other. To reiterate what I mean by rationalisation, I am referring to the development of institutions that systematically and purposively render calculable and predictable the uncoordinated behaviour and decisions of unconnected individuals, in addition to providing a relatively coherent justification for the patterns of conduct that result. Rationalisation is an instrumental phenomenon, serving the interests of both the efficiency and the legitimation of the relevant system.
