IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/irlaec/v39y2014icp1-19.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The diffusion of constitutional rights

Author

Listed:
  • Goderis, Benedikt
  • Versteeg, Mila

Abstract

Constitutions are commonly regarded as uniquely national products, shaped by domestic ideals and politics. This paper develops and empirically investigates a novel hypothesis, which is that constitutions are also shaped by transnational influence, or “diffusion.” Constitutional rights can diffuse through four mechanisms: coercion, competition, learning and acculturation. To analyze diffusion in the constitutional realm, we traced the historical documents of all post-WWII constitutions and documented the presence of 108 constitutional rights. With this data, we first demonstrate and analyze the rapid global spread of constitutional rights over the past six decades. We then estimate a spatial lag model to explain their adoption. Our results show that the decision of countries to adopt a right is correlated with past adoption by their former colonizer, countries with the same legal origin, the same religion, the same former colonizer, and the same aid donor. These transnational correlations are strongest when a nation adopts its first constitution.

Suggested Citation

  • Goderis, Benedikt & Versteeg, Mila, 2014. "The diffusion of constitutional rights," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-19.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:39:y:2014:i:c:p:1-19
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2014.04.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0144818814000180
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.irle.2014.04.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert J. Barro & Rachel M. McCleary, 2005. "Which Countries Have State Religions?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(4), pages 1331-1370.
    2. Alesina, Alberto & Dollar, David, 2000. "Who Gives Foreign Aid to Whom and Why?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 33-63, March.
    3. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 1999. "The Quality of Government," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 222-279, April.
    4. Berkowitz, Daniel & Pistor, Katharina & Richard, Jean-Francois, 2003. "Economic development, legality, and the transplant effect," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 165-195, February.
    5. Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede & Ward, Michael D., 2006. "Diffusion and the International Context of Democratization," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(4), pages 911-933, October.
    6. Gray, Virginia, 1973. "Innovation in the States: A Diffusion Study," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 67(4), pages 1174-1185, December.
    7. Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, 2000. "Why Did the West Extend the Franchise? Democracy, Inequality, and Growth in Historical Perspective," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(4), pages 1167-1199.
    8. Farber, Daniel A, 2002. "Rights as Signals," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(1), pages 83-98, January.
    9. Collier, Paul & Hoeffler, Anke, 2009. "Testing the neocon agenda: Democracy in resource-rich societies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 293-308, April.
    10. repec:pri:rpdevs:besley_case_diffusion.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64, pages 416-416.
    12. Elkins, Zachary & Guzman, Andrew T. & Simmons, Beth A., 2006. "Competing for Capital: The Diffusion of Bilateral Investment Treaties, 1960–2000," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(4), pages 811-846, October.
    13. Strang, David & Chang, Patricia Mei Yin, 1993. "The International Labor Organization and the welfare state: institutional effects on national welfare spending, 1960–80," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(2), pages 235-262, April.
    14. Orley Ashenfelter & David Card, 2002. "Did the Elimination of Mandatory Retirement Affect Faculty Retirement?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 957-980, September.
    15. Timothy Besley & Anne Case, 1994. "Diffusion as a Learning Process: Evidence from HYV Cotton," Working Papers 228, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    16. Moravcsik, Andrew, 2000. "The Origins of Human Rights Regimes: Democratic Delegation in Postwar Europe," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(2), pages 217-252, April.
    17. Jensen, Nathan M., 2003. "Democratic Governance and Multinational Corporations: Political Regimes and Inflows of Foreign Direct Investment," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(3), pages 587-616, July.
    18. Thomas Cornelissen, 2008. "The Stata command felsdvreg to fit a linear model with two high-dimensional fixed effects," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 8(2), pages 170-189, June.
    19. J. Svensson, 1999. "Aid, Growth and Democracy," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(3), pages 275-297, November.
    20. repec:pri:rpdevs:besley_case_diffusion is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Simmons, Beth A. & Elkins, Zachary, 2004. "The Globalization of Liberalization: Policy Diffusion in the International Political Economy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 98(1), pages 171-189, February.
    22. Simmons, Beth A. & Dobbin, Frank & Garrett, Geoffrey, 2006. "Introduction: The International Diffusion of Liberalism," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(4), pages 781-810, October.
    23. Kahneman, Daniel, 2002. "Maps of Bounded Rationality," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2002-4, Nobel Prize Committee.
    24. Figlio, David N. & Kolpin, Van W. & Reid, William E., 1999. "Do States Play Welfare Games?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 437-454, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Konstantin Chatziathanasiou & Svenja Hippel & Michael Kurschilgen, 2022. "Does the Threat of Overthrow Discipline the Elites? Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(2), pages 289-320.
    2. Konstantin Chatziathanasiou & Svenja Hippel & Michael Kurschilgen, 2020. "Do rights to resistance discipline the elites? An experiment on the threat of overthrow," Munich Papers in Political Economy 08, Munich School of Politics and Public Policy and the School of Management at the Technical University of Munich.
    3. Emanuela Carbonara & Giuseppina Gianfreda & Enrico Santarelli & Giovanna Vallanti, 2021. "The impact of intellectual property rights on labor productivity: do constitutions matter? [Research and development in the growth process]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(4), pages 884-904.
    4. Katarzyna Metelska-Szaniawska & Anna Lewczuk, 2022. "Constitutional overperformance: an empirical study of de facto protection of rights with no de jure equivalents," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 289-317, April.
    5. Christoph Engel & Alon Klement & Karen Weinshall Margel, 2017. "Diffusion of Legal Innovations: The Case of Israeli Class Actions," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2017_11, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, revised Jan 2018.
    6. Daria Roithmayr & Alexander Isakov & David Rand, 2015. "Should Law Keep Pace with Society? Relative Update Rates Determine the Co-Evolution of Institutional Punishment and Citizen Contributions to Public Goods," Games, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-26, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Doris A. Oberdabernig & Stefan Humer & Jesus Crespo Cuaresma, 2018. "Democracy, Geography and Model Uncertainty," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 65(2), pages 154-185, May.
    2. Goderis, B.V.G. & Versteeg, M., 2013. "The Transnational Origins of Constituions : Evidence From a New Global Data Set On Constitional Rights," Discussion Paper 2013-010, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    3. Fabrizio Gilardi, 2010. "Who Learns from What in Policy Diffusion Processes?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(3), pages 650-666, July.
    4. Seok-ju Cho & Yong Kim & Cheol-Sung Lee, 2016. "Credibility, preferences, and bilateral investment treaties," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 25-58, March.
    5. Davis, Lewis S., 2010. "Institutional flexibility and economic growth," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 306-320, September.
    6. Goderis, B.V.G. & Versteeg, M., 2013. "The Transnational Origins of Constituions : Evidence From a New Global Data Set On Constitional Rights," Other publications TiSEM 7137fbb6-8a2a-4fb4-af96-6, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Joseph Wright, 2009. "How Foreign Aid Can Foster Democratization in Authoritarian Regimes," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(3), pages 552-571, July.
    8. Peter T. Leeson & Andrea M. Dean, 2009. "The Democratic Domino Theory: An Empirical Investigation," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(3), pages 533-551, July.
    9. Felix Strebel & Thomas Widmer, 2012. "Visibility and facticity in policy diffusion: going beyond the prevailing binarity," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 45(4), pages 385-398, December.
    10. Anna Lewczuk, 2021. "Are civil liberties contagious? Analysis of determinants of de facto civil rights protection in post-socialist countries," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 187-217, June.
    11. Kathleen M. Sheehan & Andrew T. Young, 2015. "It'S A Small World After All: Internet Access And Institutional Quality," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 33(4), pages 649-667, October.
    12. Takaaki Masaki & Bradley C. Parks, 2020. "When do performance assessments influence policy behavior? Micro-evidence from the 2014 Reform Efforts Survey," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 371-408, April.
    13. Nadia Fiorino & Emma Galli & Fabio Padovano, 2013. "Do fiscal decentralization and government fragmentation affect corruption in different ways? Evidence from a panel data analysis," Chapters, in: Santiago Lago-Peñas & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (ed.), The Challenge of Local Government Size, chapter 5, pages 121-147, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Lauren L. Ferry & Emilie M. Hafner-Burton & Christina J. Schneider, 2020. "Catch me if you care: International development organizations and national corruption," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 767-792, October.
    15. Bertocchi, Graziella & Strozzi, Chiara, 2004. "Citizenship Laws and International Migration in Historical Perspective," CEPR Discussion Papers 4737, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Jandhyala, Srividya, 2015. "International and domestic dynamics of intellectual property protection," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 284-293.
    17. Franziska Deutsch & Christian Welzel, 2016. "The Diffusion of Values among Democracies and Autocracies," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 7(4), pages 563-570, November.
    18. Gutmann, Jerg & Voigt, Stefan, 2018. "The rule of law: Measurement and deep roots," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 68-82.
    19. Nadia Fiorino & Emma Galli & Fabio Padovano, 2015. "How long does it take for government decentralization to affect corruption?," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 273-305, August.
    20. Mark Copelovitch & David Ohls, 2012. "Trade, institutions, and the timing of GATT/WTO accession in post-colonial states," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 81-107, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Constitutions; Diffusion; Human rights; Spatial econometrics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K19 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Other
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:39:y:2014:i:c:p:1-19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/irle .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.