The Journal of Law and Economics· 2026Q1
Revolutionary Constitutional Compliance
- 4citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Constitutions adopted after revolutions lead to higher compliance with their provisions for at least 5 years, particularly for basic human and civil rights, compared to non-revolutionary constitutions.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Constitutions adopted after revolutions demonstrate higher compliance rates than non-revolutionary ones.
- This positive compliance effect is observable for at least 5 years following the adoption of a revolutionary constitution.
- The compliance advantage of revolutionary constitutions is particularly pronounced for basic human and civil rights provisions.
- The overall positive compliance effect diminishes by the 10-year mark but remains significant for rights provisions.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Revolutions are bottom-up movements for regime change that, if successful, overthrow and replace a society’s principal institutions. Successful revolutions are often followed by a new Constitution. We explore whether revolutionary Constitutions, all else equal, lead to higher compliance than their non-revolutionary counterparts. To do so we combine data from the Comparative Constitutional Compliance Database and the Revolutionary Episodes Dataset. We identify 15 revolutionary Constitutions, adopted between 1976 and 2010, and consider their compliance relative to that of their predecessors. We employ matching methods, drawing on up to 61 cases of (non-revolutionary) Constitutional adoptions to construct counterfactual episodes. Constitutions lead to higher compliance at least 5 years out from their adoption. At 10 years out, the positive overall compliance effect gets weaker. However, the effect remains significant for basic human and civil rights provisions.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. The Journal of Law and Economics, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Sociology and Political Science
Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences