Constitutional Politics in Times of Uncertainty

Abstract

Research on constitutional politics emphasizes a constitutional moment of regime change. However without this moment it also has a tremendous influence on political systems as we can see in Russia (sub-national units), Turkey (new constitution without regime change), Moldova (alternation of par- liamentarism and semi-presidentialism) or India (gradual constitutional adaption). We will in this panel discuss the two basic ideas of variance and similarities (in content, context and institutional setting), which stand behind the questions of how and why constitutional politics can produce very different outcomes despite relatively similar starting points. We invite compara- tive or single-case studies with a creative conceptual approach and sophisticated empirical strate- gies.