Depending on the court and the circumstances. Just off the top of my head, there could be a simple "level of refinement" setting for a realm so people would know. It's probably too much work though, but I waffle on the idea as in smaller continents everyone knows which realms are more or less "Dark Ages", but in big realms or those seperated by big gaps people might not know.
Ehn, probably still wouldn't work though, as some realms are really loose in some ways while being brutally repressive in others. Maybe there could be a one-line of flavour that the ruler could make so people could grasp the realm "in a nutshell."
Just a riff on Indirik's point really.
