ABSTRACT
The French Constitutional Convention that elaborated the 1793 constitution can be held up as a prototype for an open type of participatory constitution-making body that was based on the notion of popular sovereignty and was elected by universal male suffrage. The classification of constitution-making bodies is complicated by the diversity of such bodies as well as the ambiguous terminology that is sometimes used in the field of constitution-making. Within the literature, terms such as 'constitutional convention', 'constitutional assembly' and 'constituent assembly' are often used to refer to ideal types of constitution-making bodies that are based on principles of representation and democracy. Possibly the most problematic variable to operationalize is the style of constitution-making. Looking at the geographical distribution of constitution-making events, as well as their spread across time, the author's see that a number of events that are characterized by particular types of constitution-making body are clustered in time and space.
