Constitutional Endurance: Lessons from 83 Cases

Abstract

Although political constitutions are certainly intended to endure, there is still for a variety of reasons a great variation between the countries of the world in terms of constitutional endurance. Investigating a set of 83 national constitutions that were adopted in the 1990s, this study contributes to the empirical study of endurance determinants. Specifically, three potential determinants are investigated, namely democracy status, constitutional rigid ity, and ethnic diversity, the relevant expectations being that endurance is to be found in democracies, in countries wit h rig id constitutions and in ho mogeneous countries. The explanatory factors are applied to endurance data by means of a truth table wh ich presents the impact of indiv idual factors as well as of co mb inations of factors. Confirming results fro m earlier studies, the main finding is that democracy makes a difference whereas rigidity and ethnicity do not – while elements of non-endurance turn up in the materials they do not show in democrat ic settings, and democracy produces endurance even in the absence of rig idity or ho mogeneity.