Judicial Contestation

I n a context where the amount of cases being processed in the justice system reaches the extraordinary figure of 67.7 million -which is equivalent to one case for every two people over the age of 20 -and where higher court decisions, such as those by Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and the Supreme Federal Court (STF) have directly affected the relationships among the branches of power and redesigned Brazilian polity, the publication of Matthew Taylor's Judging policy could not be more opportune.More than that, the well-deserved recognition by the Brazilian Association of Political Science, which awarded him with the "Victor Nunes Leal" prize for best Political Science book (2007)(2008), does justice not only to the quality of the work but also reflects the importance achieved by the area of political studies of the Judiciary in the Brazilian political science community.As the book well highlights, the past 20 years in Brazil's democracy cannot be analyzed without reserving a special place for the role played by Justice institutions.During this time, judges and members of the Public Ministry (MP) have played a decisive role in fulfilling the principles of the 1988 Constitution, in arbitrating the relationships among the branches of power and among the federative entities, in the definition of and adjustments to the main public policies implemented by the various administrations, thus affecting, it could be said, the dynamics of the democratic regime as a whole.The triple transition in the 1980s and 1990s -political regime, State and economic model -was marked by the clash between adverse trends and often by collisions between government policies and constitutional principles.In the various conflicts involving administrations, political parties and civilian

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• Decision Making in Political Systems

  Open Access•George Tsebelis•British Journal of Political…•1995

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