Taps Coogan – September 27th, 2021

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The following map, from Statista.com, highlights a few of the oldest constitutions in the world. First things first, the map is in error as the UK does not have a codified constitution and the Magna Carta, while undoubtedly historic, is certainly not a codified constitution in any sense equivalent to the other countries. It is a closer to a bill of rights and, in any case, nearly the entire document has been repealed.

It’s an important point because it is all too quickly forgotten that when the US constitution was hammered out in 1789, it was the first large scale democratic constitutional republic with widespread suffrage (albeit not universal) since the fall of the Roman Republic in 27 BC and the first truly codified republican constitution in history baring micro-states (San Marino) and other such technicalities.

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