Measuring Constitutional Loyalty: Evidence from the Covid-19 Pandemic

Arbeitspapier

Constitutional loyalty, the importance ascribed to complying with constitutional rules, is difficult to measure across countries due to differences in context, history, and culture. We overcome this challenge by exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic as an ideal setting in which societies around the world face a novel and similar public health crisis, inducing governments to adopt comparable policies. Based on a survey carried out in 53 countries around the world in 2021, we show that citizens' support for Covid-19 mitigation policies declines if courts signal doubts about their constitutionality. We further demonstrate that this effect of constitutional loyalty depends on citizens' characteristics, such as their confidence in the courts and their moral convictions.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: ILE Working Paper Series ; No. 55

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact ; Crisis Management ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health ; Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior: General ; Other Economic Systems: Political Economy; Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies
• Subject: Constitutional loyalty ; Constitutions ; Courts ; Covid-19 ; Judicial power

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Gutmann, Jerg ; Sarel, Roee ; Voigt, Stefan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics (ILE)
• (where): Hamburg
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/249337
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET