What makes written constitutions effective and enduring? Despite increasing attention to constitution-making among scholars, there is still little systematic knowledge about constitutional texts themselves, not to mention their consequences, relationship with de facto governance, or the factors that sustain them over time. This project provides a resource for scholars and practitioners to understand the content of formal texts and to assess fundamental research questions. Having developed a chronology of constitutional documents, replacements and amendments for all independent countries since 1789, the investigators record a wide range of characteristics of the written constitution, including aspects of political institutions, provisions on rights, and formal features such as length and organization of the document. At a descriptive level, the dataset will allow the investigators to track patterns in global constitutional change and stability, and to develop measures of similarity across constitutions. This will allow systematic study of constitutional borrowing and interdependence. When combined with other datasets, the project will also allow scholars to analyze the complex relationship between formal constitutional rules and actual political practices across a large set of cases. The investigators will also explore the merits and determinants of constitutional endurance, including the crucial question of whether any features of the constitution itself can influence its durability in a world of constant change. The resource will make a significant contribution to basic research and teaching, as the data will enhance our understanding of how constitutional texts vary over time and across regions, cultures, and political systems. Perhaps most importantly, the investigators will make a version of the dataset and associated research available to constitutional designers with the assumption that a clear menu of options will assist the drafting process itself.
