Does Research on Constitutions Matter?

Alan Kuperman and his colleagues have brought us a most sophisticated study of the impact of constitutional designs on conflict management in Africa. Their insights are equally relevant to other parts of the world of course, since countries that face complex ethnic, religious, and other divisions do exist everywhere. In fact, such societies are likely to become even more prevalent in the future, as the pressure of mass migration is superimposing ethnic, religious, and linguistic pluralism on a growing number of hitherto relatively homogeneous countries.