The idea for this body was launched in principle in 1933 in Warsaw. The Commission was formally constituted in 1936 by the International Committee of Historical Sciences for co-operation in studying the history of representative institutions on a comparative basis. It included representatives of Belgium, the Argentine, the USA, France, England, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and Germany. The Commission produced a number of publications, mostly published in Belgium. Professor Emile Lousse, of Louvain, kept the Commission in being during the war, and many publications were subsidised by the University of Louvain. Helen Cam sought renewed funding when she became President of the Commission in 1949, succeeding Professor Coville.