Of NWW and Fukuyama

Interesting read. Not having read either book, I'd be curious to know how Fukuyama and North see the rule of law being extended beyond the elite to include the rest of society. Why doesn't it simply remain a sort of cartel agreement between elites? Or are there cases where it has, and I'm just not thinking of them? If so, then why does it extend to everybody in some cases, but not in others?

This to me seems like a rather important point of discussion: how did we get from the Magna Carta to the Constitutional Convention of 1787?

I always sensed a circularity to these types of arguments. They reduce to: "How to achieve what westerners have achieved? First, you must be just like the westerners..."

I'm not saying I know the answer, either. But I bet there is some other way to be prosperous besides having a foundation of a western-like culture. This very question is one of the issues in Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age.