Post-Socialist Constitutions: The De Jure - De Facto Gap, Its Effects and Determinants

Katarzyna Metelska-Szaniawska

No 2016-21, Working Papers from Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw

Abstract: In this paper we aim to contribute to the debate on constitutional rules and their economic effects by extending the focus to the de jure – de facto constitutional gap. Firstly, we provide evidence that the size of this gap matters as non-compliance lowers the effectiveness of the constitutional commitment mechanism. Secondly, we identify several explanans of this gap, in particular relating to the democratization process, political conflict, age and comprehensiveness of the constitution. We base the conclusions on an empirical study for the unique setting of the post-socialist countries of Europe and Asia, which all enacted new constitutional frameworks after 1989, and argue that the constitutions in these countries acted primarily as blueprints.

Keywords: Constitutional Economics; constitutional compliance; post-socialist transition; economic reforms; sham constitutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H11 K19 P21 P26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-sog
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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http://www.wne.uw.edu.pl/index.php/download_file/2945/ First version, 2016 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Post‐socialist constitutions: The de jure–de facto gap, its effects and determinantsa (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:war:wpaper:2016-21

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