Designing Constitutions for Multi-Ethnic Societies

Over several semesters, I have engaged students in a country-writing project as their final. The project builds upon an earlier assignment in which students are assigned a UN member-state and required to summarize features of the constitution (including group and individual rights, regime type and system of government). In addition, students in this earlier project examine the level of democracy in the country according to Freedom House, perception of corruption according to Transparency International and political economy using GDP/PPP. They are also required to comment and compare their country constitution to a classmate’s country constitution. With this background, the final project has students design a constitution for the multi-ethnic country that I call Kerblakistan. I provide the students demographics (including ethnic groups and languages spoken), a map of the country as well as a political history. Based on the country characteristics of Kerblakistan, I ask students to design a constitution that addresses five elements (e.g., rights and freedoms, system of government, regime type, legislative branch and electoral system). Students are required to reflect on what form of constitution would balance group rights, provide for a sense of national unity among different ethnic groups and explain which regime type and electoral system would balance stability and representation. In this paper, I discuss the evolution of this assignment, issues to consider when assigning a constitution-writing project and provide data on students views regarding the utility of such an assignment.