1 research outputs found
The difference constitutions make: a global inquiry into the impacts of institutional design
This dissertation provides an international perspective on the problem
of constitutional engineering. At its heart it is an assessment of
the direction and magnitude of constitutional effects on the quality
and robustness of government, taken from two major constitutional
paradigms: that of constitutional regime types and that of inclusive-versus-exclusive democratic competitiveness. Constitutional performance
is evaluated in terms of effects on measurements of governance
across dimensions such as rule of law, social welfare and fiscal
management, which are measured based on citizen perceptions and
other aggregates. The analysis moves in four stages. First, an analysis
of regime types treated endogenously. Second, an estimation of
regime type effects on three dimensions of good governance. This
is proceeded by another estimation exercise, this time on the regime
type effects on fiscal management. Finally, there is an assessment of
the social welfare effects of power-sharing institutions. I find evidence
in favour of the hypothesis that alloy constitutional models attenuate
the effects of presidentialism and parliamentarism. The presidential
system is also found to perform well with respect to fiscal management.
Power-sharing institutions generally have positive effects on
social welfare but these remarks must be qualified by the extent to
which power-sharing institutions tend toward rent-seeking and inefficiency, and by the extent to which under stronger controls, related
to making national aggregates more commensurable, this evidence
appears to dissolve