Creating a Constitution

Law, Democracy, and Growth in Ancient Athens

Federica Carugati

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English

Princeton University Press
20 August 2019

Ancient history: to c 500 CE; Political science & theory; Constitution: government & the state; Political economy; Constitutional & administrative law

A comprehensive account of how the Athenian constitution was created-with lessons for contemporary constitution-buildingWe live in an era of constitution-making. More than half of the world's constitutions have been drafted in the past half-century. Yet, one question still eludes theorists and practitioners alike: 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. Because the city-state was reasonably well-documented, smaller than most modern nations, and simpler in its institutional makeup, the case of Athens reveals key factors of successful constitution-making that are hard to flesh out in more complex settings.

Carugati demonstrates 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. The constitution 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: 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 is a compelling account of how political and economic goals that we normally associate with Western developed countries were once achieved through different institutional arrangements.

By: Federica Carugati
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780691195636
ISBN 10: 0691195633
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 20 August 2019
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Federica Carugati is a program director at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

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

""This book does an excellent job of demonstrating the salience of Athens for our understanding of constitutionalism, and provides a historically well-grounded and analytically precise account of constitutional emergence.""—Melissa Schwartzberg, New York University ""Explaining Athenian institutions in a wonderfully clear and concise fashion, this book demonstrates how much insight can be gleaned from applying concepts and tools from the social sciences to classics research.""—F. Andrew Hanssen, Clemson University