ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that constitutions matter because rules for making choices are themselves essential components of rationality. Constitutions matter because patterns of action are not fully determined through conscious choices. At the level of the individual, there are two broadly familiar reasons why a personal “constitution” may be deliberately designed and implemented—a rule or rules aimed specifically at constraining the set of available options that are predicted to be open. Constitutional structure and strategy must be informed, first, by a definition of those patterns of outcomes that are deemed undesirable and, second, by an implementation of limits on the procedures or results designed to forestall such patterns. Constitutional rules have the effect of increasing the costs of taking certain actions. It is more costly to take an action in violation of a rule than it is to take that same action in the absence of the rule.
