Inferring mechanisms for global constitutional progress

Alex Rutherford (), Yonatan Lupu, Manuel Cebrian, Iyad Rahwan, Brad L. LeVeck and Manuel Garcia-Herranz ()
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Alex Rutherford: UNICEF Office of Innovation
Yonatan Lupu: George Washington University
Manuel Cebrian: MIT Media Lab
Iyad Rahwan: MIT Media Lab
Brad L. LeVeck: University of California Merced
Manuel Garcia-Herranz: UNICEF Office of Innovation

Nature Human Behaviour, 2018, vol. 2, issue 8, 592-599

Abstract: Abstract Constitutions help define domestic political orders, but are known to be influenced by international mechanisms that are normative, temporal and network based. Here we introduce the concept of the ‘provision space’—the set of all legal provisions existing across the world’s constitutions, which grows over time. We make use of techniques from network science and information retrieval to quantify and compare temporal and network effects on constitutional change, which have been the focus of previous work. Furthermore, we propose that hierarchical effects—a set of mechanisms by which the adoption of certain constitutional provisions leads to or facilitates the adoption of additional provisions—are also crucial. These hierarchical mechanisms appear to play an important role in the emergence of new political rights, and may therefore provide a useful roadmap for advocates of those rights.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-018-0382-8

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