Democratic constitutional design and public policy : analysis and evidence / Roger D Congleton and brigitta Swedenborg (ed)

The variety of constitutional designs found in democratic governments has important effects on policy choices and outcomes. That is the conclusion reached in this particular book, in which the constitutional procedures and constraints through which laws and public policies are adopted-election laws, the general architecture of goverl1ment, the legal system, and methods for amendment and reform-are evaluated for their political and economic effects. Leading scholars, many of them pioneers in the new field of constitutional political economy, survey and extend recent empirical evidence on the policy effects of different constitutional procedures and restraints. Their findings are relevant not only to such changes as democratic transition throughout the world and the development of a European constitution but also to the continuing process of constitutional reform in established democracy.