Social Capital, Institutional Rules, and Constitutional Amendment Rates
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2021-09-20
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Abstract
Why are some constitutions amended more frequently than others? Despite the importance of this question to political science and legal theory, there is little consensus
regarding the forces that shape constitutional amendments. Some scholars only focus on institutional factors, while others emphasize variations in culture. This paper
makes a contribution to both literatures by examining how social capital reduces the
transaction costs imposed by amendment rules. We conduct cross-sectional analyses
of amendment rates for democratic constitutions globally and time-series analyses of
efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution. The results indicate amendment frequency is
a product of amendment rules, group membership, civic activism, and levels of social
and political trust, but these effects vary across contexts based on the corresponding
transaction costs. Our findings suggest social capital can have beneficial effects on
social movements that demand constitutional amendments and the political elites and
voters who supply them.