This article introduces a novel database that measures governments’ compliance with national constitutions. It combines information on de jure constitutional rules with data on their de facto implementation. The individual compliance indicators can be grouped into four categories that we aggregate into an overall indicator of constitutional compliance: property rights and the rule of law, political rights, civil rights, and basic human rights. The database covers 175 countries over the period 1900 to 2020 and can be used by researchers interested in studying the determinants or the effects of (non)compliance with constitutions. Our investigation of the stylized facts of constitutional compliance reveals a long-term increase in compliance, which occurred primarily around the year 1990. The Americas experienced the steepest increase in compliance, but also Africa and Europe improved particularly at the end of the Cold War. Democracies – particularly those with parliamentary and mixed systems – show more constitutional compliance than nondemocracies, among which military dictatorships perform the worst. Constitutional design also matters: Constitutions that allow for the dismissal of the head of state or government for violating constitutional rules are being complied with more.

本文介绍了一个新颖的数据库，用于衡量政府对国家宪法的遵守情况。它将法律上的宪法规则信息与其事实上的数据相结合执行。个人合规指标可以分为四类，我们将它们汇总成一个合宪性总体指标：财产权和法治、政治权利、公民权利和基本人权。该数据库涵盖 1900 年至 2020 年期间的 175 个国家，可供有兴趣研究（不）遵守宪法的决定因素或影响的研究人员使用。我们对符合宪法的程式化事实的调查揭示了遵守情况的长期增长，这主要发生在 1990 年左右。美洲的遵守情况增长最快，但非洲和欧洲也有所改善，特别是在冷战结束时。民主国家——尤其是那些拥有议会制和混合制度的国家——比非民主国家表现出更多的宪法遵守，其中军事独裁表现最差。宪法设计也很重要：允许因违反宪法规则而免职国家元首或政府首脑的宪法正在得到更多遵守。