#9. Constant Constitutional Changes
A constitution’s original intent is to limit the power of a government and clearly delineate its functions. Unfortunately, many banana republics are characterized by a very unstable constitutional foundation. The political-analyst Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez made an astute observation with regards to the phenomenon of “wiki-constitutionalism” — a clever reference to the perennially changing nature of the Wikipedia database format — that is characteristic of Latin American countries: The majority of these countries have experienced unprecedented levels of constitutional rewriting.
Venezuela, for example, has had 26 constitutions up to this date. On other hand, Canada has had 2 and the United States has had only 1. This constant state of flux has left Venezuela and countless other Latin American countries with very weak political institutions that are at the mercy of political strongmen. Weak constitutions are the harbingers of an inevitable fall into banana republic status.
