# Comparative Constitutions Project

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{{Short description|Academic study of the world's constitutions}}{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}}
The '''Comparative Constitutions Project''' is an [academic study](/source/Research) of the content of the world's [constitutions](/source/constitutions) from 1789 to 2022, with yearly updates. The project was founded by Zachary Elkins and [Tom Ginsburg](/source/Tom_Ginsburg) in 2005 when they were colleagues at the [University of Illinois](/source/University_of_Illinois_Urbana-Champaign) and fellows at the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research.<ref>The American Bar Foundation.  "The Comparative Constitutions Project."  2013.  ''Researching Law''  [https://www.americanbarfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/rl_vol._24_no._4_fall_2013.pdf Vol. 24, No. 4.  https://www.americanbarfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/rl_vol._24_no._4_fall_2013.pdf]</ref> The primary objective of the project is to understand the origins and consequences of constitutional choices.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-08-08 |title=Comparative Constitutions Project - Informing Constitutional Design |url=https://comparativeconstitutionsproject.org/ |access-date=2023-09-13 |website=Comparative Constitutions Project |language=en-US}}</ref> Most of the [seed money](/source/seed_money) for the project came from the Cline Center, as well as two successive grants from the [National Science Foundation](/source/National_Science_Foundation).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Comparative Constitutions Project {{!}} Cline Center |url=https://clinecenter.illinois.edu/project/CollaborativeResearch/comparative-constitutions-project |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=clinecenter.illinois.edu}}</ref><ref>Elkins, Zachary and Tom Ginsburg.  "Formal Characteristics of National Constitutions: A Cross-National Historical Dataset."  National Science Foundation, Award Nos. 0648288 and 0819102.  Online at https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0648288&HistoricalAwards=false and https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0819102&HistoricalAwards=false</ref> James Melton, a [graduate](/source/Postgraduate_education) student at [Illinois](/source/Illinois), joined Elkins and Ginsburg as a full collaborator before leaving [academia](/source/Academic_procession) in 2015. The project continues to be administered by Elkins and Ginsburg as a [collaboration](/source/collaboration) between the [University of Texas](/source/University_of_Texas_at_Austin) and the [University of Chicago](/source/University_of_Chicago), where they are based, respectively.<ref>"Comparative Constitutions Project - Informing Constitutional Design". ''Comparative Constitutions Project''. 2023-08-08. Retrieved 2023-09-13.</ref><ref>Alex Reshanov.  "Laws of the Lands: Exploring the World's Constitutions."  ''Life and Letters.''  March 22, 2023.</ref>

== Project datasets ==
[Data](/source/Data) from the project is used primarily by [scholars](/source/Scholar) of [comparative politics](/source/comparative_politics) and [comparative law](/source/comparative_law).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Comparative constitutions project (CCP) |url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=mhIGFq8AAAAJ&citation_for_view=mhIGFq8AAAAJ:3ssty3PwuTgC |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=scholar.google.com}}</ref> The data, particularly the repository of indexed texts (constitute), are also widely used by constitutional drafters to guide the [inventory](/source/inventory) and choices of [constitutional](/source/Constitution) drafters.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Mix and match |url=https://www.economist.com/international/2013/11/09/mix-and-match |access-date=2024-07-10 |work=The Economist |issn=0013-0613}}</ref>

=== Constitutional events ===
A first stage of the project has entailed the [documentation](/source/documentation), or [census](/source/census), of each historical constitutional "event" (e.g., replacement, amendment, suspension, etc.) for each of the countries included in the sample.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-08-08 |title=Comparative Constitutions Project - Informing Constitutional Design |url=https://comparativeconstitutionsproject.org/ |access-date=2023-09-19 |website=Comparative Constitutions Project |language=en-US}}</ref> This [chronological](/source/Chronology) dataset is published as the "[Chronology](/source/Chronology) of Constitutional Events."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-12-01 |title=Comparative Constitutions Project - Informing Constitutional Design |url=https://comparativeconstitutionsproject.org/ |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=Comparative Constitutions Project |language=en-US}}</ref> The sample includes every recognized [independent state](/source/Independence) in the Ward and Gleditsch list<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gleditsch |first1=Kristian S. |last2=Ward |first2=Michael D. |date=1999-12-01 |title=A revised list of independent states since the congress of Vienna |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03050629908434958 |journal=International Interactions |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=393–413 |doi=10.1080/03050629908434958 |issn=0305-0629|url-access=subscription }}</ref> (including most [microstates](/source/Microstate)) in existence for at least ''some'' period since 1789. This recording of events has been useful to researchers who study [institutional reform](/source/Institution) historically, has become a standard accounting of the [census](/source/census) of historical [constitutions](/source/Constitution).<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Elkins |first1=Zachary |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511817595 |title=The Endurance of National Constitutions |last2=Ginsburg |first2=Tom |last3=Melton |first3=James |date=2009-10-12 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511817595 |isbn=978-0-521-73132-4}}</ref><ref>Cite to the event data </ref> Currently, the project lists the existence of 799 constitutional "[systems](/source/System)" since 1789, 2,999 amendments to these 799 systems, 85 suspensions, 66 reinstated constitutions, and 95 [interim](/source/Provisional_government) constitutions.<ref>Elkins, Zachary, Tom Ginsburg, and James Melton.  "Chronology of Constitutional Events, v.1.3."  Online at [https://comparativeconstitutionsproject.org/ https://comparativeconstitutionsproject.org]</ref> The project maintains a [visualization](/source/Visualization_(graphics)) of these [chronologies](/source/chronologies).  

=== Constitutional texts ===
The project's researchers have collected the text for nearly every system (in the year of its enactment) as well as most of the amendments to these systems. (They list a set of "most wanted" texts for those that they are missing.<ref>{{cite web | author=Comparative Constitutions Project | date=September 5, 2018 | title=CCP's most wanted texts | website=ComparativeConstitutionsProject.org | url=https://comparativeconstitutionsproject.org/ccps-most-wanted-texts/ | access-date=September 3, 2025}}</ref>) They maintain an indexed repository of these texts on Constitute, an [online](/source/online) tool that the researchers built with [engineers](/source/Engineer) at [Google](/source/Google) (see below).{{cn|date=September 2023}}

=== Characteristics of constitutions ===
A central, component of the project is the coding of some 650 characteristics of constitutions (and their revisions, aggregated yearly). These [data](/source/data) are disseminated in a [dataset](/source/Data_set) published yearly as the "Characteristics of National Constitutions."<ref>Characteristics of National Constitutions.  Documentation and Data.  To be completed</ref> More than 200 studies have [employed](/source/employed) the data for the [analysis](/source/analysis) of the origins and effects of constitutional choices, as well as a description of institutional forms over time.<ref>"Comparative Constitutions Project." Google Scholar Citations. https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=mhIGFq8AAAAJ&citation_for_view=mhIGFq8AAAAJ:3ssty3PwuTgC </ref> The authors have published several studies about the reliability and comparability of the data.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Melton |first1=James |last2=Elkins |first2=Zachary |last3=Ginsburg |first3=Tom |last4=Leetaru |first4=Kalev |date=2012-10-09 |title=On the Interpretability of Law: Lessons from the Decoding of National Constitutions |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2191145_code249436.pdf?abstractid=2191145 |journal=British Journal of Political Science |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=399–423 |doi=10.1017/s0007123412000361 |hdl=2152/22252 |s2cid=28979765 |issn=0007-1234|hdl-access=free |url-access= }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Elkins |first1=Zachary |last2=Ginsburg |first2=Tom |date=2021-05-11 |title=What Can We Learn from Written Constitutions? |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-100720-102911 |journal=Annual Review of Political Science |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=321–343 |doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-100720-102911 |s2cid=233925573 |issn=1094-2939|url-access=subscription |doi-access=free }}</ref>

=== Related data ===
A number of data projects have spun off from the project's core sets of data. For example, some data projects have recorded information about the process of constitution making.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Blount |first1=Justin |title=Does the Process of Constitution-Making Matter? |date=2012-02-27 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139105712.004 |work=Comparative Constitutional Design |pages=31–66 |access-date=2023-09-13 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |last2=Elkins |first2=Zachary |last3=Ginsburg |first3=Tom|doi=10.1017/cbo9781139105712.004 |hdl=2152/22257 |isbn=9781139105712 |hdl-access=free |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Other researchers have deepened the topic coverage by coding topics in more detail. The project [site maps](/source/Site_map) some of these related data projects through a set of [standardized](/source/Standardization) topics ([ontology](/source/Ontology_(information_science))), for which the team received a third grant from the [National Science Foundation](/source/National_Science_Foundation).<ref>{{Cite web |title=NSF Award Search: Award # 2315189 - Concept Integration in Comparative Law: Linking Constitutional, Consultation, and Court Analysis |url=https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2315189&HistoricalAwards=false |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=www.nsf.gov}}</ref>

== Repository of texts (Constitute) ==
In 2013, CCP teamed up with [Google Ideas](/source/Google_Ideas) (now [Jigsaw](/source/Jigsaw_(company))) to launch Constitute, an indexed repository of currently-in-force constitutional texts.<ref>Fareed Zakaria.  {{Citation |title=Last Look: Google's constitution database {{!}} CNN |date=2013-09-30 |url=https://www.cnn.com/videos/bestoftv/2013/09/30/exp-gps-0929-last-look-constitution.cnn |access-date=2023-09-19 |language=en}}</ref>   The point of Constitute is to provide representative text for each of 330 constitutional topics for constitutional drafters throughout the world. The site has been localized in [Spanish](/source/Spanish_language) and [Arabic](/source/Arabic), which include a small number of texts translated into those languages.<ref>"Constitute in Arabic and Spanish."

https://comparativeconstitutionsproject.org/arabic-constitute/</ref>  The site receives some 7,000 visitors a day and has won a number of awards for [civic tech](/source/Civic_technology) contributions and [information design](/source/information_design).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.constituteproject.org/content/media | title=Constitute }}</ref> Psycle Interactive, a digital production company based in the UK, has worked closely with the team since 2013.{{cn|date=September 2023}}

=== Semantic web and controlled vocabularies ===
The data model for the site, which has evolved since 2013, represents one of the early uses of [Semantic Web](/source/Semantic_Web) technology.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Elkins |first1=Zachary |last2=Ginsburg |first2=Tom |last3=Melton |first3=James |last4=Shaffer |first4=Robert |last5=Sequeda |first5=Juan |last6=Miranker |first6=Daniel P. |date=2014 |title=Constitute: The World's Constitutions to Read, Search, and Compare |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3199104 |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |doi=10.2139/ssrn.3199104 |issn=1556-5068|url-access=subscription |doi-access=free }}</ref> A central focus of the project has been the articulation of a [standardized vocabulary](/source/Standardization) to track constitutional topics and to link various [datasets](/source/Data_set) on constitutions and [politics](/source/politics).

== References ==
{{reflist}}

Category:Constitutions
Category:Research
Category:Comparisons

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Comparative Constitutions Project](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_Constitutions_Project) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_Constitutions_Project?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.