Does the Process of Constitution-Making Matter

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2009

Authors

Elkins, Zachary
Ginsburg, Tom
Blout, Justin

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Abstract

Constitution-making is a ubiquitous but poorly understood phe- nomenon. There is much speculation but relatively little evidence about the impact of different design processes on constitutional outcomes. Much of the debate reduces to the question of who is involved in the process and when. We consider two central issues in this regard. The first is the problem of institutional self-dealing, or whether governmen- tal organs that have something to gain from the constitutional outcome should be involved in the process. The second has to do with the mer- its of public involvement in the process. Both of these concerns have clear normative implications and both are amenable to straightforward social scientific analysis. This article surveys the relevant research on constitution-making, describes the conceptual issues involved in un- derstanding constitution-making, reviews the various claims regarding variation in constitution-making processes, and presents a set of base- line empirical results from a new set of data on the content and process of constitution-making.

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