American State Constitutions: An Historical Series

自1776年以来，美国各州制定了150多部宪法，并对其进行了10，000多次修改。 各州在选举权、代表权、立法结构、司法结构、公司法和公共财政等方面尝试了各种各样的宪法安排。 宪法本身记录了美国历史上根本性的制度变革，反映了美国人对政府的看法以及对美国社会和经济的政治约束的变化。 由于宪法随着时间的推移发生了很大的变化，它们为社会科学家提供了一个迷人的实验室。 但是，由于宪法经常修改，因此积累了大量的书面记录：完整的宪法文本及其修正案将填满15，000页的印刷本。 自1997年以来，我们一直在收集各州宪法及其修正案的文本，纠正早期编辑的错误和遗漏，并将完整的系列带到2000年。 到目前为止，我们的网站http：//www.bsos.umd.edu/constitution上有20个州的宪法全文，到2006年初我们将有一套完整的宪法。 印刷体的一个缺点是很难对大量的文本进行分类。 网站上的宪法可以通过州、年份、文章和章节编号以及关键字进行搜索。 这使读者能够立即访问他们希望检查的宪法部分。 该网站是围绕数据库搜索引擎设计的。 这使我们能够将修订后的文本与它所修订的条款和章节联系起来，从而更容易跟踪宪法的变化。 创建尊重公民个人权利并为经济增长提供稳定环境的可持续政府是现代世界的一项根本挑战。 欧洲联盟目前正在努力起草一部可行的宪法，东欧和亚洲的转型经济体也是如此。 美国不仅拥有最古老的成文宪法（1780年的马萨诸塞州宪法），而且拥有世界上最广泛和最丰富的宪法历史。 然而，到目前为止，这些经验中的大部分都被锁在无法访问的卷中，卷实在太重了，无法携带。 这段丰富的历史对社会科学家如何理解制度是如何演变的影响相对较小。 我们的项目为每个人打开了这个巨大的国家资源。

Since 1776, American states have written over 150 constitutions and amended them over 10,000 times. States have experimented with a wide variety constitutional arrangements governing suffrage, representation, legislative structures, judicial structures, corporate law, and public finance. The constitutions themselves record fundamental institutional change in American history, a record reflecting changes in the way Americans think about their governments and the changing political constraints on the American society and economy. Because constitutions have changed so much over time, they provide a fascinating laboratory for social scientists. But because they have changed so often, an enormous written record has accumulated: the complete constitutional texts and their amendments would fill up 15,000 printed pages. Since 1997, we have been assembling the texts of the state constitutions and their amendments, correcting the errors and omissions of earlier editors, and bringing the complete series up to 2000. To date, the complete texts of constitutions for twenty states are available on our web site, http://www.bsos.umd.edu/constitution, and we will have a complete set by early 2006. One drawback of printed volumes is the difficulty in sorting through the voluminous mass of text. The constitutions on the web site can be searched by state, year, article and section number, and by keyword. This enables readers to immediately access those parts of the constitutions they wish to examine. The web site is designed around a data base search engine. This allows us to associate amended text with the article and section it amends, making it much easier to track constitutional changes through time. Creating sustainable governments that respect the rights of individual citizens and provide a stable environment for economic growth is a fundamental challenge in the modern world. The European Union is currently struggling to write a workable constitution, as are the transition economies of Eastern Europe and Asia. The United States not only has the oldest written constitution continuously in force (the Massachusetts constitution of 1780), but it has the widest and richest constitutional history of any nation in the world. Until now, however, much of that experience has been locked away in inaccessible volumes, volumes literally too heavy to carry. This rich history has had relatively little impact on how social scientists understand how institutions evolve. Our project opens this tremendous national resource for everyone.