ABSTRACT
What does it all add up to one may ask, after having examined a number of key political institutions and a set of outputs and outcomes in order to clarify and answer the often raised question: Do institutions matter? In this final chapter we do not wish to make a survey of the findings in each of the chapters of the book, but to state a new interpretation of the theory that political institutions are important. We now suggest that among the conceivable institutional effects that are relevant when examining the successful operation of a written constitution one should include constitutionalism, or the outcome that the constitution is a basic document that constrains state power or power-holders in government. If institutions can produce constitutionalism in a country, then this is a very worthwhile effort.
