Direct citizen participation in the constitutional reform

Abstract

This paper aims at analysing the role that direct citizen participation plays in democratic constitutional reforms. In opposition to a non-normative model, typical of those systems which conceive the people as the real sovereign, this paper argues that the direct participation of the citizenry –which can take place at the input (deliberation) or at the output (decision) of the reform process– only makes sense if understood as a legal mechanism aimed at reinforcing the own sovereignty of the legal system itself and thus democracy.