Formal Characteristics of National Constitutions: A Cross-National Historical Dataset

是什么使成文宪法有效而持久？尽管学者们越来越关注宪法制定，但对宪法文本本身的系统知识仍然很少，更不用说它们的后果、与事实上的治理的关系，或者随着时间的推移维持它们的因素。该项目为学者和实践者提供了理解正式文本内容和评估基础研究问题的资源。研究人员编制了自1789年以来所有独立国家的宪法文件、替换和修订的年表，记录了成文宪法的广泛特征，包括政治制度、权利条款以及文件的长度和组织等正式特征。在描述层面上，数据集将允许调查人员跟踪全球宪法变化和稳定的模式，并制定跨宪法的相似性措施。这将有助于系统地研究宪法借贷和相互依存关系。当与其他数据集相结合时，该项目还将允许学者分析正式宪法规则与实际政治实践之间的复杂关系。调查人员还将探讨宪法耐久性的优点和决定因素，包括宪法本身的任何特征是否会影响其在不断变化的世界中的耐久性这一关键问题。该资源将对基础研究和教学做出重大贡献，因为这些数据将增强我们对宪法文本如何随时间、地域、文化和政治制度而变化的理解。也许最重要的是，调查人员将把数据集和相关研究的一个版本提供给宪法设计者，并假设一个清晰的选项菜单将有助于起草过程本身。

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.