Activating judges: Courts, institutional structure, and the judicialization of policy reform in Brazil, 1988--2002

Latin America's courts are not uniformly dysfunctional, or consistently subservient to the region's strong executives. On the contrary, in the wake of post-transition reforms, the region's courts may have significant influence on public policy debates and policy choices. Courts shape the alternatives available to policymakers, play a role in determining which political actors are able to exert an influence on policy, and influence the comparative strength of various political actors in the process.;This dissertation draws on a new institutional framework to explore the policy effects of the Brazilian federal court system on federal government policymaking between 1988 and 2002. I focus on how institutional characteristics of the federal court system structure public policy debate within the judiciary, and thus in the Brazilian polity as a whole. Bureaucratic structures, constitutional arrangements, legal instruments, and the professional norms of judges, lawyers and prosecutors influence public policy debate within the judiciary, and thus affect public policy outcomes, by determining who has access to the courts, where in the court system that access is granted, and how and under what conditions courts make decisions.;I argue here that the institutional characteristics of the judiciary shape the policy issues that emerge in the courts as influentially as the institutional arrangements of electoral and party systems affect policies debated in legislatures, or decree power and reelection rules shape the manner and the content of the policy priorities expressed by the executive branch. I do not make the claim that the judiciary is necessarily as influential in structuring national policy choice as the executive or legislative branches. However, this dissertation highlights the notion that institutional features govern how policy issues are brought into the judiciary, mold the strategies of political actors in the judiciary, and shape the normative and procedural filters by which the judiciary mediates policy debates. This lesson is particularly useful in comparative perspective, contributing to our understanding of the role of courts and their impact on governance and public policy within the re-emerging democracies of Latin America.