This article looks at the apparent impossibility of implementing an in-depth political reform, to reinforce the institutions, reconcile the citizens with their representatives, and consolidate representative democracy in Ecuador. This Andean country appears to be a paradigm of political instability. The three abrupt changes in government in 1997, 2000, and 2005, have contributed to changing the image that the country had of successful democratic transition and consolidation (1976-1979), projecting a new impression of institutional weakness. Nonetheless, this political instability is recent and does not constitute a characteristic proper to the political system, nor is it a result of the democratic transition.