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Definitions: Types of Conflict
The categories of conflict used in this part of the website are defined below. In some of the working papers and publications that use the data from this project, we use violence scores from the International Country Risk Group (ICRG), patched to include countries not represented in that resource. The ICRG dataset provides monthly violence scores on a scale of 0 to 12, with low scores representing the highest levels of violence. A separate series captures violence within the military (coup attempts, for example). Because most of these data are proprietary, the monthly violence scores are not presented here.Civil War (Constitution Part of Peace Settlement):
Under this heading you will find descriptions of constitution making that took place as part of a peace settlement. When constitution making has the resolution of a localized civil war as an initial objective but this focus disappears in the course of negotiations, we classify the case as one of “institutional crisis.” For example, Mali’s 1992 process aimed to resolve the conflict with the Tuareg and address internal pressure for multi-party rule. The drafters decided to pursue these goals along different tracks and gave priority to the institutional crisis in constitution writing. Therefore we classify the process as an example of response to institutional crisis.Civil War/Severe Internal Conflict:
The cases under this heading include processes where the level of violence was high enough to warrant definition as civil war, but constitution writing did not necessarily take place as part of a peace settlement. The cases listed are those where the average violence score for one of the five years preceding ratification is below 7 in the International Country Risk Group (ICRG) assessments or our patches in these data and qualitative case studies confirm high levels of violence. Some involve country-wide high-intensity conflict, while others suffer sporadic attacks on civilians or government targets. (As a general rule, comparing absolute levels of internal violence across countries is extremely difficult and we discourage efforts to do so.)Decolonization:
This study explores constitution making after the main wave of decolonization in the 1960s. The withdrawal of colonial powers from the Pacific Islands and a few other locations took place in the 1970s, and the dataset contains several cases that fall under this heading.Collapse of a Federation:
Changes in the definition of a federation have often required adjustments in national constitutions. Most of the cases in this set follow the redefinition of relationships with Russia or the collapse of the Yugoslav Federation.Institutional Crisis:
Popular agitation for multi-party systems, shifts to civilian rule, adjustments after military coups, and public demonstrations demanding more effective government may all inspire new constitutions. Usually these cases involve less violence than those under “severe internal conflict,” but in many of these instances terror attacks, violent repression of demonstrations, and pogroms that fall short of widespread civil war are forerunners of change.