Drafting constitutions

Mix and match

Countries change their constitutions often. There’s an app for that

The Economist | Nov 9th 2013 | From the print edition

A CONSTITUTION “naturally expires at the end of 19 years” wrote Thomas Jefferson, one of America’s Founding Fathers, in 1789. This, he calculated, was the length of a generation. More than 200 years and 800 constitutions later, the life expectancy of a constitution proves indeed to be about 19 years. Some die much earlier. Egypt’s latest one lasted just over six months. The committee now rewriting it seems to be on track to publish a draft on time, despite the tight 60 days it was given; the writers of Bhutan’s first constitution, adopted in 2008, took three years.

Constitution-drafting is a niche, but a busy one. Drafters are at work in Tunisia. Nepal and Libya are preparing to hold constituent-assembly elections, which should lead to new constitutions being adopted. Around five countries get new founding documents each year, often after a civil war or other upheaval; another 30 revise old ones (Brazil, Mexico, and Norway have all recently mulled changes). Other countries’ experience is helpful in working out design and wording—the Bhutanese looked at more than 100 other constitutions—but making comparisons can be tricky because the documents vary so much in length and scope.

Croatia’s constitution, for example, kicks off with a history lesson about the “millenary identity” of the Croatian nation, set out in 13 bullet points. India’s 140,000-word whopper is the longest. Mexico’s is one of the most detailed, with two pages devoted just to the subject of time allocations for political parties in election broadcasting on public television.

Now help is at hand. A new online tool called Constitute compares 189 constitutions, tagging them on 300-plus themes. Google Ideas, a research and do-gooding outfit attached to the search-engine giant, supported its production. The Comparative Constitutions Project, an academic consortium, runs it. Search topics can be as narrow, and potentially explosive, as the tax status of religious institutions.

Easy search should save time and effort for the business of drafting. That can produce workmanlike prose—or something more exotic. Bhutan’s constitution kicks off with: “Blessed by the Triple Gem, the protection of our guardian deities, the wisdom of our leaders, the everlasting fortunes of the Pelden Drukpa, and the guidance of His Majesty”. How to tag that?