Mind the gap - analyzing the divergence between constitutional text and constitutional reality

Stefan Voigt

Constitutional Economics - the analysis of constitutions drawing on the economic approach - has made important progress over the last two decades. The factors determining whether a constitution is complied with, however, have received only little attention. This is surprising, as a huge gap between constitutional text and constitutional reality seems to exist in many countries. In this paper, this gap is referred as the de jure/de facto gap. The paper discusses ways in which the gap can be researched systematically and surveys the scant available literature that has tried to do so thus far.

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Year of publication:	February 2020 ; This version: November 8, 2019
Authors:	Voigt, Stefan
Publisher:	[Hamburg] : Universität Hamburg, Fakultät für Rechtswissenschaft
Subject:	constitutional compliance \| de jure/de facto gap \| Verfassungsökonomik \| Constitutional economics \| Verfassung \| Constitution \| Verfassungsreform \| Constitutional reform