American State Constitutions: An Historical Series

美国各州宪法：历史系列

• 批准号: 0241699
• 负责人: John Wallis
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: National Bureau of Economic Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-03-01 至 2009-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0241699&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: American; State; Constitutions; Historical; Series

Since 1776, American states have written over 150 constitutions and amended them over 10,000 times. States have experimented with a wide variety constitutional arrangements governing suffrage, representation, legislative structures, judicial structures, corporate law, and public finance. The constitutions themselves record fundamental institutional change in American history, a record reflecting changes in the way Americans think about their governments and the changing political constraints on the American society and economy. Because constitutions have changed so much over time, they provide a fascinating laboratory for social scientists. But because they have changed so often, an enormous written record has accumulated: the complete constitutional texts and their amendments would fill up 15,000 printed pages. Since 1997, we have been assembling the texts of the state constitutions and their amendments, correcting the errors and omissions of earlier editors, and bringing the complete series up to 2000. To date, the complete texts of constitutions for twenty states are available on our web site, http://www.bsos.umd.edu/constitution, and we will have a complete set by early 2006. One drawback of printed volumes is the difficulty in sorting through the voluminous mass of text. The constitutions on the web site can be searched by state, year, article and section number, and by keyword. This enables readers to immediately access those parts of the constitutions they wish to examine. The web site is designed around a data base search engine. This allows us to associate amended text with the article and section it amends, making it much easier to track constitutional changes through time. Creating sustainable governments that respect the rights of individual citizens and provide a stable environment for economic growth is a fundamental challenge in the modern world. The European Union is currently struggling to write a workable constitution, as are the transition economies of Eastern Europe and Asia. The United States not only has the oldest written constitution continuously in force (the Massachusetts constitution of 1780), but it has the widest and richest constitutional history of any nation in the world. Until now, however, much of that experience has been locked away in inaccessible volumes, volumes literally too heavy to carry. This rich history has had relatively little impact on how social scientists understand how institutions evolve. Our project opens this tremendous national resource for everyone.

自1776年以来，美国国家已经撰写了150多个宪法，并将其修改了10,000多次。 各州已经实验了各种各样的宪法安排，其中包括选举权，代理，立法结构，司法结构，公司法和公共财政。 宪法本身记录了美国历史上的根本制度变化，这是一份记录，这是美国人对政府的思考方式以及对美国社会和经济的不断变化的方式的变化。 由于宪法随着时间的流逝发生了很大变化，因此它们为社会科学家提供了一个引人入胜的实验室。 但是，由于它们经常发生变化，因此积累了巨大的书面记录：完整的宪法文本及其修正案将填满15,000页的印刷页面。 Since 1997, we have been assembling the texts of the state constitutions and their amendments, correcting the errors and omissions of earlier editors, and bringing the complete series up to 2000. To date, the complete texts of constitutions for twenty states are available on our web site, http://www.bsos.umd.edu/constitution, and we will have a complete set by early 2006. One drawback of printed volumes is the难以分类大量文本。 网站上的宪法可以按州，年份，文章和部分编号以及关键字搜索。 这使读者能够立即访问他们希望检查的宪法的那些部分。 该网站是围绕数据库搜索引擎设计的。 这使我们可以将修订的文本与已修改的文章和部分联系起来，从而使跟踪宪法变化的时间更加容易。 建立可持续的政府尊重个人公民权利并为经济增长提供稳定的环境是现代世界的基本挑战。 欧盟目前正在努力编写可行的宪法，东欧和亚洲的过渡经济体也是如此。 美国不仅具有最古老的书面宪法（1780年的马萨诸塞州宪法），而且拥有世界上任何国家的最广泛，最丰富的宪法历史。 然而，到目前为止，这种经验的大部分内容都被锁定在无法访问的卷中，数量太重而无法携带。 这种悠久的历史对社会科学家如何理解机构的发展方式产生了相对较小的影响。 我们的项目为所有人开放了这种巨大的国家资源。