Mind the gap: Analyzing the divergence between constitutional text and constitutional reality

Abstract Constitutional economics—the analysis of constitutions drawing on the economic approach—has made important progress over the last two decades. The factors determining whether a constitution is complied with, however, have received only little attention. This is surprising, as a huge gap between constitutional text and constitutional reality seems to exist in many countries. In this article, this gap is referred to as the de jure/de facto gap. The article discusses ways in which the gap can be researched systematically and surveys the scant available literature that has tried to do so thus far.