By contrast with http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule+of+Law, the RuleOfFear holds that, in the face of a great fear, a smaller injustice is permissible. 

In a process analogous to CompoundInterest, the RuleOfFear produces a state in which ever greater injustices are enacted, each rationalized as a form of opposition to the next. The old SovietUnion was built on the RuleOfFear, and it is now the dominant cultural force in the FascistStateOfAmerica.