Rules Are Rules, Except in Baseball and Dictatorships

What does Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig have in common with Egyptian generalissimo Abdelfatah al-Seesi? Nothing -- except for the inclination to declare a state of exception and throw the rule book out the window.

Reports that Selig might summarily suspend the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez by invoking his “right to take action against a player to preserve the integrity of the game” are important to no one except baseball fans, of course. The general’s decision to oust elected President Mohamed Mursi affects the future of democracy in Egypt, the Middle East and the world. Yet taken together, these examples -- one minor and one major -- can teach us a fundamental lesson about the importance of procedures and the nature of power itself.