An analysis of constitutionality of the economy using the methods of cluster and factor analysis

Abstract

The article formulates methodological approaches to determine the level of constitutionality of the national economy. The economy’s constitutionality is considered in the context of optimizing the combination of the economic feasibility and the level of the constitutional development of the country. To assess the level of economy’s constitutionality are used factorial and cluster analysis tools. Seven components of the index (that were presented in 2015 as part of the report prepared by non-governmental organization Freedom House) calculated for the 76 countries are proposed as cluster criteria. The following characteristics are used for the complex analysis of constitutionality of the considered countries’ economies: accessory of countries to clusters, distances of each country from the cluster centers, values of the latent factor, ratings of the countries on this indicator, and also distinctions in levels of constitutionality of the countries’ economies in comparison with the country-criterion. An important feature of the presented approach is the possibility of complex use of cluster and factorial analyses tools. From the received results should be singled out the use of the factorial analysis for creating generalized indicator for constitutionality of the economy, along with the use of cluster analysis tools to assess the degree of constitutional backwardness of national economy.