Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, January 2010. / Electronic version restricted until 28th January 2015.

It has become almost universal practice for countries to adopt written constitutions that include a bill of rights. Yet we know little about the origins and evolution of the practice of constitution-writing on a global scale. Are bills of rights defining statements of the nation’s character and identity? Or are they more standardized documents that are similar across countries, and vary only at the margins? Are substantive constitutional features rooted in the society for which they are written, or are they borrowed from elsewhere? What are the origins of the world’s “words of liberty”? This thesis presents the first-ever systematic substantive exploration of the world’s written constitutions. It introduces a new database, based on the coding of the constitutions of 188 countries, for the period 1946-2006. With this data, it explores the historical trajectory of the world’s written constitutions and offers explanations for their substantive content. This thesis's most important finding is that constitutions are inherently “transnational” documents. As it turns out, substantive constitutional choices are remarkably unrelated to local needs and values. Constitutions do not express identity or national character. Instead, the most important predictor of whether any particular country adopts any particular constitutional provision is whether other countries previously did the same thing. Constitutions do not tell stories of the nation’s history, but rather tell stories of transnational interactions and international politics. As a result, constitutions have become at least partly standardized documents that vary along a small number of underlying dimensions. But this thesis also shows that not all constitutions are the same, and that there exists no evidence of a global constitutional convergence. Instead, the world’s constitutions divide in a limited number of constitutional families. This thesis is not currently available in ORA.

Univ., Diss.--Jena, 2003.

Texte remanié de : Diss. : Juristische Fakultät : Julius-Maximilians-Universität : Würzburg, 1999. / Bibliogr.: p. 230-249. Index.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Political Science)--University of California. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 426-461).

Thesis--Faculté de droit de Paris. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Doktorwürde)--Universität Greifswald, 1905. / Cover title. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 607-620) and index.

Zugl.: Basel, Univ., Diss., 2006 / Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral) -- Universität Bayreuth, 2006. Includes bibliographical references (p. [416]-464) and index.

<p>  </p> <p>Between 1977 and 1984, Grove City College engaged in a legal dispute with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare as to whether the college needed to sign federally mandated Title IX compliance forms for its students to receive federal funding. This project uses the culmination of the legal dispute, the Supreme Court case <em>Grove City College v. Bell </em>(1984) to engage with discussions about philanthropy’s role in shaping education, the political effects of that education, the politicization of interpretations of Supreme Court decisions, and the continued role of education in shaping a conservative intellectual elite. Throughout much of the twentieth century, oil magnate and conservative businessman J. Howard Pew funded Grove City College’s building projects and gave countless speeches at the college. By relying on his money, Pew steered the private college’s curriculum and student life to embrace Judeo-Christian norms, cultural conservatism, and libertarian economics. </p> <p>These values shaped the conservative response to federal regulations in the form of Title IX as Grove City College sought to defend those values. This sociolegal history of the case reveals the intellectual roots of Grove City College’s retaliation. Furthermore, this project bridges legal and political history as I show that Supreme Court decisions were shaped by activists and politicians. We must look beyond case law. The project connects grassroots activism and political decisions as both meted out the future of conservatism in the public square. By conflating popularity with democracy, Ronald Reagan and his Department of Justice tried to appease all sides in the legal conflict as he made overtures to the antifeminist New Right. This project then touches on the battle over minority rule and majoritarian democracy as Reagan was at odds with the New Right as he subscribed to the latter. My work on <em>Grove City College v. Bell </em>(1984) then pushes our discussion of political history beyond a red and blue dichotomy as Democrats and moderate Republicans formed a bipartisan coalition to legislatively overturn the Supreme Court’s decision. Grove City College’s conservative think tank acts as a new endeavor to inform the public square as to the values of conservatism. Long since passed away, Pew’s values live on in the Institute for Faith and Freedom. By observing the branding of the organization and its connection to the college’s history, this work shows the fluidity and adaptability of conservatism as it occurs on campus and how it intertwines with national conversations today with which conservatism is concerned. </p>