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Following the third wave of democratization, Latin America was expected to transition into a period of political stability. Instead, the region has experienced persistent political crises and a notably high rate of constitutional replacement. This dissertation offers a novel contribution by systematically analyzing how political crises can undermine the legitimacy of constitutions and, in turn, contribute to their replacement. This dynamic remains largely understudied in the existing literature.
Using a mixed-methods approach, the study unfolds across two levels of analysis. At the first level, a statistical analysis explores correlations between political crises and constitutional change across the Latin American region. At the second level, a process-traced case study of Ecuador (1978–2008) investigates the causal mechanism of constitutional legitimacy through which political crises affect the rate of constitutional replacement. By integrating quantitative breadth with qualitative depth, this study not only reveals patterns but also explains the processes that drive constitutional instability in the region.