Includes bibliographical references and index.

"The central purpose of a constitution is to allocate and regulate governmental power within a state. A constitution establishes the key institutions of government; it grants power to them, distributes power between them, and governs the ways in which the institutions of government interact with each other. A constitution also controls the way in which those institutions might exercise their powers, and determines how those powers might be exercised in relation to the individuals who reside within that state. Constitutions are therefore, as the quote which opens this chapter suggests, a distinctive species of legal norms (rules) concerned with the government and governance of the state within which they apply"-- Provided by publisher.