本書的研究對象包括形式的憲法或實質的憲政制度。作者以政治思想史的角度，分析憲政主義的起源與發展路徑，也以比較制度分析的方法，分析了各式各樣的憲政制度，包括總統制、內閣制、聯邦制、單一制、中央集權、地方分權、強勢司法審查、弱勢司法審查等設計。更精采的是，作者以新制度經濟學的角度，使用許多實証資料與經濟模型，包括賽局理論與公共選擇理論等，來檢討各種憲法設計的作用，甚至試圖找出較佳的憲法設計。

Jan-Erik Lane (born 1946 in Göteborg) is a Swedish political scientist. He has taught politics and economics at many universities around the world. He is member of many editorial boards of political science journals. He has published some 300 books and articles. In 1996 (and 2009) he received the Humboldt Award by the Humboldt Stiftung. He has been full professor at the Umea university in Sweden and Oslo university in Norway. At the University of Geneva (1996-2008), he taught and examined alone around 800 students a year at all levels, from 1st year to PhD. He has been visiting professor at several universities in the US, Africa and Asia, receiving a Lady Davis professorship at the Hebrew University in 2006, as well as honorary medal from Kairo Universoty and the University of Qatar. After teaching regionalism and development at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, Lane was Mercator visiting professor at the University of Heidelberg in Germany and teaches now at the Unıversity of Freiburg in Breisgau as visiting professor. He is a permanent resident in the Republic of Geneva.