18 · Map: constitutional systems of the world

Read this before the map, because the map's limits are part of the lesson. A constitutional system is a property of a whole country, an AREA, not a point, so this map fills each country's area by its executive family (the choropleth layer), with a capital-city marker on top that carries the detail. Read the fills first, then tap a marker. The dots are approximate points placed to show a pattern, not addresses, so do not use them to find a building.

What the colors mean

The fills, and the markers on them, are grouped by the course's FIRST axis, how executive power is held, because that is the sharpest single sorter of the world's democracies:

Blue markers: presidential. A separately elected president holds executive power for a fixed term, separate from the legislature. The United States and Brazil.

Amber markers: parliamentary. The executive is drawn from the legislature and survives on its confidence. The United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, South Africa, and New Zealand. Notice how different these five are on the OTHER axes, which is the point: same executive family, very different constitutions.

Purple marker: semi-presidential. A separately elected president and a prime minister answerable to the legislature at once, drawn in its own color because Section 2 taught that this category is genuinely contested. France.

Read the other two axes in the descriptions

Color carries only the first axis. Each marker's description carries the other two (territorial and form) plus, where relevant, the MAKING route from Section 4, so the map ties the whole course together:

• The federal cases (the United States, Germany, Brazil) against the unitary ones (France, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom at its center).
• The uncodified cluster (the United Kingdom and New Zealand here, with Israel the third from Lesson 9) against the codified majority.
• The four making cases sit on the map too: the United States (convention, 1787), South Africa (negotiated, 1996), Japan (imposed, 1947), and Germany (reconstruction, 1949).

What the map cannot show, and what that proves

It cannot show that two same-colored dots are opposite in every other way. Amber Germany and amber New Zealand are both parliamentary, yet one is federal, codified, and rigid, and the other is unitary, uncodified, and flexible. Color carries one axis; the portrait needs all three, which is exactly why the capstone asks you to write all three out for a country of your choosing, from its documents. Read the legend, then go classify one. This is comparative description, not legal advice.

Sources

• Lijphart, A. (1999). Patterns of democracy: Government forms and performance in thirty-six countries. Yale University Press.
• Elkins, Z., Ginsburg, T., & Melton, J. (2009). The endurance of national constitutions. Cambridge University Press.