1980 年代中期以來，包括台灣在內的部分亞洲、中東歐、中南美等國家紛紛進行民主轉型，並帶動新一波的憲法變遷。不過，在民主轉型的脈絡中，憲法究竟扮演何種角色，則一直未受到充分學術探討。本文旨在深究民主轉型與憲法變遷間的互動關係。

在研究方法上，本文歸納分析民主轉型國家的憲法變遷，提出四種主要的模式:轉型初期一次制憲、轉型初期一次大幅修憲、階段式制憲、多次漸進修憲。其次則從主權因素、政權更迭、憲政傳統以及國際干預的四個面向，探討民主轉型國家的憲法變遷模式是否與特定因素相關。本文發現，民主轉型國家的憲法變遷模式，並無法從單一面向來作合理的解釋;此外，這一波民主轉型國家的憲法變遷，明顯表現出相對化的特質—制憲與修憲的相對化、一次與漸進的相對化，而與傳統憲法變遷的理論預設並不相同。

基於前述研究發現，本文認為，民主轉型的憲法變遷模式，並不必然與民主轉型的模式路徑相依，而可以是一個集體的制度選擇。對台灣而言，雖然過去七次的漸進修憲，在一定程度內與民主轉型的路徑及模式有關，但這並非表示台灣就不可能進一步透過集體的制度選擇，採行較大幅度的憲改。相反地，台灣經由漸進修憲所結織出之憲政秩序，一方面觸動下一波的憲改，另方面也某程度與憲法在民主轉型脈絡中的結織功能相互呼應。

Many countries in East and Central Europe, Central and South America, and Asia, including Taiwan, undertook democratic transitions amidst the 1980s, which triggered a new wave of constitutional change. The role of constitutional change in the context of democratic transitions, however, has not been explored and discussed fully by scholars in the field. This article aims at addressing this issue and focuses on the interactions between democratic transitions and constitutional change.

In order to analyze constitutional change in the context of democratic transitions, this article offers four models for empirical observation, which includes 1)initial constitution making, 2)initial major constitutional revision, 3 ) constitution making via stages, and 4 ) incremental constitutional reforms. Next, this article resorts to four dimensions of factors including sovereignty, regime change, constitutional tradition and international intervention to explain why any particular model is adopted in a transitional context. This article finds that contrarily to conventional assumption, the adoption of a particular constitutional change model does not depend on a single factor. Rather, the reality is more complex and shows a relative nature: the relativity between constitution making and constitution amending and the relativity between one-time change and incrementalism. Based on this finding, this article further contends that the choice of constitutional change may be collectively made, and constitutional change has played a rather constructive function during democratic transitions. Although Taiwan’s past constitutional change was rather incremental, this would not prevent any future adoption of other large-scale change models.