Protecting individual rights: An empirical test of the central doctrines of American constitutionalism

The Constitution of the United States has been held as an example of how a document can create a democratic society and protect the rights of citizens. Yet constitutions as documents of change have all but been ignored by studies trying to determine what are the factors that allow some nations to respect the rights of citizens while others regularly violate the most basic rights to be free from torture, disappearance, imprisonment and killing.; If other nations have constitutions similar to the American Constitution, would they have greater respect for the rights of their citizens? This study examines First Amendment protections, the Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel, provisions for an independent judiciary, and federalism and local autonomy in the American Constitution. A content analysis of those same rights and liberties for 74 other nations' constitutions is conducted to determine their level of strength in comparison to the American example.; A multivariate analysis is performed to determine the effectiveness of the written strength and extensiveness of constitutional provisions providing for civil rights and liberties, independence of the judiciary and federalism in protecting the individual rights of citizens. Control variables are the economic development and population size of a nation. Two other important constitutional provisions are: the written strength of access to the courts to protect constitutional rights and the written power to suspend these rights or the constitution.; To complete the individual rights sequence this study analyzes the relationship between written constitutional provisions and the actual institutional arrangements of government and/or governmental practices. The actual level of independence of the judiciary and the extensiveness of a declared state of emergency suspending constitutional provisions are independent variables having substantial influence on the governmental behavior.; The findings support the theory that constitutions are important in protecting individual rights. Also supported by the findings is the importance of institutional arrangements in protecting rights. An independent judiciary's power, which has not been suspended by a state of emergency, can protect individual rights. The findings also justify a reliance on the American Bill of Rights as a model for constitution drafting for protecting citizens rights.