 Third, his account of the law of peoples is constrained by the need that it describe a “realistic utopia” (Rawls 1999a: 11–12) that follows Rousseau’s dictum to take “people as they are and laws as they might be”. As a consequence, there are at least three distinct instances where Rawls appeals to empirical facts as a way of “realistically” grounding particular normative claims. First, an international system composed of well-ordered peoples with representative governments will be peaceful (1999a: 44–54); second, issues beginning with cultural diversity, geographic distance, and linguistic pluralism combine to make a world state fundamentally unworkable (1999a: 36); and, lastly, the primary causal component of national wealth and prosperity is the political culture and the corresponding effectiveness of their political institutions (1999a: 108–110).