Democracy and Constitutional Endurance

Dag Anckar

《Taiwan Journal of Democracy》 10卷1期 (2014/07) Pp. 23-41

並列摘要

Among nations, the life-span of constitutions in force varies considerably. Several internal as well as external factors have been singled out in research to account for this variation; this study, however, is about one determinant only: whether the countries in question are democracies. Following operationalizations of the key concepts, democracy and endurance, two empirical investigations are conducted, which both introduce controls for length of independence. The first investigates five clusters of altogether thirty-three countries; within each cluster, the states represent the same independence year. While controlling for several background factors, the second investigation operates from a comparable-cases perspective and builds upon comparisons among eight pairs of two countries. Findings are that the link between democracy and endurance is evident in four clusters out of five, and that seven pairs out of eight are in the same direction. The thesis that democracy promotes endurance is therefore well substantiated. While several mechanisms may be at play here, an assumed tendency of democracies to pursue constitutional change by resorting to amendments appears somewhat problematic in terms of interpretation, as amendments are about change (of parts) as well as about endurance (of wholes).

並列關鍵字

Comparative law ； constitutional amendment ； constitutional endurance ； democracy ； pair-wise comparison

參考文獻

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