The political language of our times: New constitutional language

Conference item

How can we best classify constitutions, identify their potential to change, and anticipate their likely effects? Classifying constitutions is often led by considerations of their cultural and intellectual origins, but this tells us more about a constitution’s past than its potential to shape the future. An alternative, presented in this paper, is a compound variable that captures key features of each country’s constitutional language. A tripartite measure of relative constitutional indeterminacy is proposed. Using machine reading technology, 4,366,046 words in 187 constitutions have been analysed. Findings demonstrate increased indeterminacy in constitutions promulgated since 1989. It will also be demonstrated that high ‘indeterminacy volume’ is correlated with limited political freedoms, with institutional rigidity, and with lower GDP per capita, even when controlling for other variables.

Authors: Williams, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Political Studies Association
• Host title: 68th Political Studies Association Annual International Conference (PSA 2018)
• Journal: 68th Political Studies Association Annual International Conference (PSA 2018)
• Publication date: 2018-04-01
• Acceptance date: 2018-02-16