Explaining constitutional change: making sense of cross-national variation among European Union member states

Karlsson, Christer

doi:10.1080/13501763.2015.1043323

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Rigidity refers to the difficulty of the amendment process itself. Karlsson (2016) finds evidence that an additive index of constitutional features making amendments more difficult is associated with fewer constitutional changes. However, Tsebelis and Nardi (2016) find that institutional barriers to amendment are insufficient to explain the pattern of amendments observed in OECD democracies (Tsebelis and Nardi, 2016).…”

Section: Why Study Constitutions In Africa?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most research on constitutional change focusses on established democracies (e.g. Karlsson, 2016; Lorenz, 2005; Tsebelis and Nardi, 2016). Two particularly important features of this literature are the “rigidity” of the constitution (Karlsson, 2016; Lorenz, 2005) and length (Tsebelis, 2017; Tsebelis and Nardi, 2016).…”

Section: Why Study Constitutions In Africa?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Karlsson, 2016; Lorenz, 2005; Tsebelis and Nardi, 2016). Two particularly important features of this literature are the “rigidity” of the constitution (Karlsson, 2016; Lorenz, 2005) and length (Tsebelis, 2017; Tsebelis and Nardi, 2016). Rigidity refers to the difficulty of the amendment process itself.…”

Section: Why Study Constitutions In Africa?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When the actors, their preferences, or the issues themselves change, constitutional amendment is possible. The veto player effect, as it applies to constitutional amendments, is also related to the concept of “rigidity” as discussed above (Karlsson, 2016; Lorenz, 2005; Tsebelis, 2002). We explore these concepts with two related hypotheses.…”

Section: The Importance Of Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changing the Rules: Institutions, Party Systems, and the Frequency of Constitutional Amendments in Africa

2022

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What factors influence constitutional stability in the emerging democracies of Sub-Saharan Africa? This is an important question that has never been addressed in a systematic cross-national study of Africa's emerging democracies. Using the Comparative Constitutions Project dataset and our own original dataset for veto players and party systems, we examine the influence of veto players and party system characteristics on the frequency of constitutional amendments in the electoral periods between 1990 and 2020 in forty-one African countries. Our results provide broad support for the veto players theory. More specifically, we find that as the number of actors needed to approve of a constitutional amendment increases, the likelihood a constitution will be amended decreases. The strength of party veto players also influences whether a constitution is likely to be amended. Furthermore, our results underscore the importance of party system characteristics in influencing amendment frequency.

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Section: Why Study Constitutions In Africa?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Why Study Constitutions In Africa?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Why Study Constitutions In Africa?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Importance Of Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Changing the Rules: Institutions, Party Systems, and the Frequency of Constitutional Amendments in Africa

2022

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“…A few examples of how the coding was done may be instructive (see also Karlsson 2014;2016). Consider variable 1, where we are interested in determining how the constitutional grounds for membership have been regulated in the various member states.…”

Section: Analytical Framework and Data Gatheringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constitutional change in light of European Union membership: trends and trajectories in the new member states

Karlsson

Galić

2016

East European Politics

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After the fall of the Iron Curtain, all states in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) amended their old constitutions or adopted new ones. The shared experience of forced subordination to the Soviet Union provided a compelling incentive for these countries to put a strong emphasis on sovereignty as they drafted their new constitutions. In the Estonian Constitution, for example, according to Article 1, the "independence and sovereignty of Estonia are timeless and inalienable". Similar formulations typically appear in many of the constitutions of these countries.Not long after their newly gained independence and the adoption of their new constitutions, the states in CEE started to realise that the prospect of membership in the European Union (EU) seemed a very distinct possibility. In 1994, only a few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Hungary and Poland formally applied for membership in the EU and more countries would soon follow suit. As a consequence, all of these countries needed to start a process of adapting their constitutions for EU membership. The need for constitutional change stemmed from the fact that most constitutions of these countries, due to their "souverainist" character (Albi 2005b, 25), simply did not allow for membership in a supranational organisation like the EU. However, a number of other important issues, besides the grounds for membership, needed to be addressed, including provisions on: the transfer of powers to the EU; the relationship between EU law and national law; and the selection of representatives to EU institutions.

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Introduction

Fruhstorfer¹,

Hein²

2016

Constitutional Politics in Central and Eastern Europe

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Explaining constitutional change: making sense of cross-national variation among European Union member states

Abstract: This paper has been peer-reviewed but does not include the final publisher proof-corrections or journal pagination.

Cited by 9 publications

References 17 publications

Changing the Rules: Institutions, Party Systems, and the Frequency of Constitutional Amendments in Africa

Changing the Rules: Institutions, Party Systems, and the Frequency of Constitutional Amendments in Africa

Constitutional change in light of European Union membership: trends and trajectories in the new member states

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