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Judging Policy: Courts and Policy Reform in Democratic Brazil

Online ISBN:
9780804786799
Print ISBN:
9780804758116
Publisher:
Stanford University Press
Book

Judging Policy: Courts and Policy Reform in Democratic Brazil

Published:
26 February 2008
Online ISBN:
9780804786799
Print ISBN:
9780804758116
Publisher:
Stanford University Press

Abstract

Courts, like other government institutions, shape public policy. But how are they drawn into the policy process, and how are patterns of policy debate shaped by the institutional structure of the courts? Drawing on the experience of the Brazilian federal courts since the transition to democracy, this book examines the judiciary's role in public policy debates. During a period of energetic policy reform, the high salience of many policies, combined with the conducive institutional structure of the judiciary, ensured that Brazilian courts would become an important institution at the heart of the policy process. The Brazilian case thus challenges the notion that Latin America's courts have been uniformly pliant or ineffectual, with little impact on politics and policy outcomes. The book also inserts the judiciary into the scholarly debate regarding the extent of presidential control of the policy process in Latin America's largest nation. By analyzing the full Brazilian federal court system—including not only the high court, but also trial and appellate courts—it develops a framework with cross-national implications for understanding how courts may influence policy actors' political strategies and the distribution of power within political systems.

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