At a time when state models are increasingly challenged in many parts of the world, And The notion of the "failed state" has arisen, this book is concerned with the form and nature of the constitution in a pluralist and post-colonial polity. Essentially it is an exercise in discovering how the character or ethos of a legal system has influenced economic and political success. Using jurisprudential tools and lens, but not constrained by these, it applies an historical institutionalism To The identification of key dynamics in western legal history. Part I, 'Legal Paradigms', considers the theories that have been advanced in an attempt to explain the rise and fall of civilisations. Individual states And The factors that appear to have led to their success and failure are considered. Finally, The concept of the hard and soft constitutions will be introduced and explained. This involves the notion that the flexibility of states is a major factor in determining their success and failure. In Part II, 'The Viability of States', this theory is applied to different types of state models.

These include authoritarian, doctrinaire liberal, empires and supra-national entities, and mixed models. The performance of these state models is examined, with the purpose of ascertaining whether it may be the flexibility of the underlying constitutional paradigm, rather than the form of the model itself, that helps determine state viability.