Project

Evolution of the Social Contract

Copyright

Public Domain

By barons and King John of England.

Political constitutions describe the fundamental principles by which nation-states are governed, the political and legal state institutions, the powers, procedures, and duties of those institutions, and the rights and responsibilities of individuals. How do these constitutions develop over long periods of time? What is the interplay between colonial history and global, time varying trends in determining the characteristics of a country's constitution? We explore these questions using new techniques of computational social science.