Bridging comparative politics and comparative constitutional law: Constitutional design in divided societies

Abstract

Abstract The Human Development Report (HDR), published annually by the United Nations Development Programme, is an unlikely stimulus for reflection upon the state of the field of comparative constitutional law. Although the Human Development Reports take a broad understanding of development, constitutional law has never occupied center stage. However, the HDR 2004 is different. Entitled Cultural Liberty in Today’s Diverse World, the HDR 2004 opens up by stating that “[m]anaging cultural diversity is one of the central challenges of our time”. The report supports this contention by drawing on a wide range of examples, from disputes over official languages in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, to the political representation of ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq and Fiji, to demands for asymmetric regimes of regional autonomy in Quebec and Catalonia, to the competing nationalisms of Northern Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Cyprus.