Vivien Hart

Vivien Hart (1938 – February 2, 2009) was a political scientist, and scholar of constitutional law and American studies. She was the inaugural director of the Cunliffe Centre for the Study of Constitutionalism and National Identity at the University of Sussex, where she was professor of American studies. She was a scholar of constitutionalism, including how constitutions are created and interpreted and how they affect politics, often focusing on comparisons between Britain and the United States.

Life and career Hart was born in 1938. She studied political science at Harvard University, where Samuel H. Beer advised her doctoral dissertation. Hart became a professor of political science at the University of Sussex in 1974. Hart was chosen as the inaugural director. Hart also compared British and American politics in her 1994 book, Bound by our constitution: Women, workers and the minimum wage. In Bound by our constitution Hart compares the movements for minimum wage in Britain and the United States, using this case as a study of how the comparative constitutional frameworks of the two countries mediate policymaking on a major social reform issue. In 2003, Hart authored the United States Institute of Peace report Democratic constitution making.

Hart also edited several volumes. In 1993, Hart and Shannon C. Stimson co-edited the book Writing a national identity: Political, economic, and cultural perspectives on the written constitution. Hart also co-edited the 2003 book Women making constitutions: New politics and comparative perspectives with Alexandra Z. Dobrowolsky. Hart's research included extensive collaboration with Marcus Cunliffe.

Hart died on February 2, 2009.

Selected works Distrust and democracy: Political distrust in Britain and America (1978) Writing a national identity: Political, economic, and cultural perspectives on the written constitution, co-edited with Shannon C. Stimson (1993) Bound by our constitution: Women, workers and the minimum wage (1994) "Constitution‐making and the Transformation of Conflict", Peace and change (2001) Democratic constitution making (2003) Women making constitutions: New politics and comparative perspectives, co-edited with Alexandra Z. Dobrowolsky (2003)