Comparing Constitutional Change in European Union Member States: In Search of a Theory

This article explores the under-researched issue of how constitutional change is brought about in modern democracies. Despite the fundamental importance of constitutions, we know surprisingly little about whether constitutional change is achieved by changing the explicit wording of the constitutional document, or by way of changing the meaning of the constitution while leaving the constitutional text unaltered. Which is the more common method and what variations in the use of these different methods are there in democratic political systems? This study systematically compares the use of explicit and implicit constitutional change in European Union (EU) Member States. The results show that implicit constitutional change is the more frequently used method, but also reveal substantial differences between EU countries. The article closes by discussing the road towards a theory of constitutional change. It does so by presenting five testable propositions that could lay the foundation for a theory of constitutional change.