ABSTRACT
This chapter provides statistical evidence to support the arguments and discusses their normative implications. In particular, it is suggested that while new Latin American democracies may foster constitutional stability by adopting power-sharing institutions, more flexible amendment procedures, and strong mechanisms for constitutional adjudication, it is likely that constitutional crises that continues to provide incentives for the enactment of new constitutions. The occurrence of constitutional replacements is also related to whether it is possible to use amendments and constitutional adjudication as alternatives means of constitutional transformation. The rate of amendments is inversely correlated to replacements and depends both on the rigidity of amendment procedures and levels of party pluralism. Public trust in representative institutions and constitutional courts may also affect the choice of means to change a constitution. Amendments must usually be approved by elected congresses, which voters in many Latin American countries see as corrupt and scarcely representative of their interests.
