<P> All thirty - three amendment proposals that have been sent to the states for ratification since the establishment of the Constitution have come into being via the Congress . State legislatures have however, at various times, used their power to apply for a national convention in order to pressure Congress into proposing a desired amendment . For example, the movement to amend the Constitution to provide for the direct election of senators began to see such proposals regularly pass the House of Representatives only to die in the Senate from the early 1890s onward . As time went by, more and more state legislatures adopted resolutions demanding that a convention be called, thus pressuring the Senate to finally relent and approve what later became the Seventeenth Amendment for fear that such a convention--if permitted to assemble--might stray to include issues above and beyond just the direct election of senators . </P> <P> To become an operative part of the Constitution, an amendment, whether proposed by Congress or a national constitutional convention, must be ratified by either: </P> <Ul> <Li> The legislatures of three - fourths (at present 38) of the states; or </Li> <Li> State ratifying conventions in three - fourths (at present 38) of the states . </Li> </Ul> <Li> The legislatures of three - fourths (at present 38) of the states; or </Li>

18. name one way that the constitution can be amended (changed)