The constitutional reform

The article deals with the mechanisms that modern Constitutions establish for its own reform. It is divided into two sections. The first section explores the idea that Constitutions have a special relation to Politics and that the mechanisms for their reform are a consequence of that relationship. These mechanisms pursue two main goals, and both of them can be considered an expression of this Constitutional feature. These two goals are, in the first place, participation, establishing ways of popular intervention that exceed the ones that exist in representative democracy;  and secondly, the generation of a certain level of political stability. The second section of this article studies the mechanisms set forth in Chilean Constitutions throughout the country’s history, and analyzes them considering the two goals previously identified.