Creating a Constitution: Law, Democracy, and Growth in Ancient Athens

The Athenian constitution provides a unique laboratory for exploring how stable, growth-enhancing constitutional structures emerge and endure. Federica Carugati argues that the institutional changes Athens undertook in the late fifth century BCE, after a period of war and internal strife, amounted to a de facto constitution that restored stability and allowed the democracy to flourish anew. The analysis of Athens's case reveals the importance of three factors for creating a successful constitution: a consensus on shared values, a self-enforcing institutional structure, and regulatory mechanisms for policymaking.

Format: Hardback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 20 August 2019
Publisher: Princeton University Press

We live in a time of constitution-making, with over half of the world's constitutions drafted in the past half-century. However, one question remains elusive: how do stable, growth-enhancing constitutional structures emerge and endure? In Creating a Constitution, Federica Carugati argues that ancient Athens offers a unique laboratory for exploring this question. Due to its well-documented history, smaller size compared to modern nations, and simpler institutional makeup, Athens provides insights into key factors of successful constitution-making that are difficult to discern in more complex contexts.

Carugati demonstrates that the institutional changes Athens undertook in the late fifth century BCE, following a period of war and internal strife, amounted to a de facto constitution. This constitution restored stability and allowed democracy to flourish anew. The analysis of Athens's case reveals the importance of three factors for creating a successful constitution: first, a consensus on a set of shared values capable of commanding long-term support; second, a self-enforcing institutional structure that reflects those values; and third, regulatory mechanisms for policymaking that enable tradeoffs of inclusion to foster growth without jeopardizing stability.

Uniquely combining institutional analysis, political economy, and history, Creating a Constitution offers a compelling account of how political and economic goals that we typically associate with Western developed countries were once achieved through different institutional arrangements.

Weight: 542g
Dimension: 163 x 242 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691195636