Consecuencias inesperadas de la polarización política: Purga y reconstrucción de la Corte Constitucional en EcuadorUnintended consequences of political polarization: Purge and reconstruction of the Constitutional Court in Ecuador

Abstract In this article we investigate the impact of affective polarization around the figure of Rafael Correa on the institutions of democracy, specifically on the Constitutional Court of Ecuador. We argue that this polarization led, first, to the purge of the Constitutional Court in 2018 causing a breakdown of the institutional order and stability that had been maintained since 2007. But the same polarization, in a second moment, also produced that the Court appointed after the purge had a different composition than the previous ones, with more diverse and innovative profiles. The new set of magistrates, in turn, initiated a transformation of the constitutional jurisprudence and the political role of the Constitutional Court. The Ecuadorian case qualifies the essentially negative view of political polarization.