Writing Constitutions After Revolutions

Every revolution eventually faces the question of what comes next, and the answer is usually a constitution. The American founders wrote and rewrote theirs in a decade of calm debate; France burned through a dozen charters between 1791 and 1958.

Revolutionary constitutions often expand rights dramatically, abolishing feudal privilege, serfdom, or racial castes, and Mexico 1917 pioneered labor and land rights in constitutional form. The hard part is enforcement.

Documents penned by victorious coalitions fracture when the coalition does, as in Egypt in 2012. The most durable revolutionary constitutions, like those of 1787 and 1996 South Africa, paired principle with compromise, leaving losers protected enough to keep playing the game..