Doctoral Dissertation Research: Do Courts Matter? Institutional Arrangements, Judicial Impact and the Attitude of Brazilian Federal Agencies Toward Court Decisions

本论文项目通过研究巴西联邦行政机构对法院判决的遵守情况，有助于理解新民主国家司法和行政部门之间的关系。本项目着眼于健康、社会保障和环境等领域，调查新民主政体中的联邦行政机构为何以及在何种条件下遵守法院判决。有人认为，相关因素包括机构的制度特征、争议政策的性质、法院判决的特征——法律案件的类型和意见的明确性——以及该国联邦制度的特征。在方法上，该项目结合了对法律案件的定量分析、对法官和机构行为者的调查、对机构人员的深入访谈以及对所分析机构历史的档案工作。研究的大部分内容包括编制一个法律案件数据库，其中机构面临不利的法院判决，并与法院和机构行为者进行深入访谈，以评估影响机构反应的因素。政治学家和法律学者还没有充分研究拉丁美洲和新兴民主国家法院和制度历史的影响。因此，对官僚对法院裁决的反应的研究解决了现有文献中的一个主要空白，并且-通过阐明巴西司法和行政部门之间关系的各个方面-进一步加深了我们对新民主国家如何运作的理解。对司法在巩固民主方面的作用日益增加的关切作出回应，这个研究项目对司法政治的辩论，更广泛地说，对拉丁美洲民主化的辩论作出了重要贡献。最后，该研究还将有助于建立一个研究框架，以发展区域和跨区域的司法影响研究，并最终进一步阐明国家行为对民主的影响。

This dissertation project contributes to the understanding of the relationship between judicial and executive branches in new democracies through the study of compliance with court decisions by federal administrative agencies in Brazil. Looking at the areas of health, social security, and the environment, this project investigates why and under what conditions federal administrative agencies in a new democratic regime comply with court decisions. Relevant factors, it is argued, include agencies' institutional characteristics, the nature of the policy in dispute, the characteristics of the court decision - type of legal case and clarity of opinion - and the characteristics of the federal system in the country. Methodologically, the project combines quantitative analysis of legal cases, surveys of judges and agency actors, in-depth interviews with agency personnel, and archival work on the history of the institutions analyzed. The bulk of the research consists of the compilation of a database of legal cases in which agencies faced adverse court decisions and in-depth interviews with court and agency actors to assess factors affecting agency responses.Political scientists and legal scholars have yet to fully grapple with the impact of courts and institutional history in Latin America and new democracies. As such, the study of bureaucratic response to court rulings addresses a major gap in the existing literature and - by illuminating aspects of the relationship between judicial and executive branches in Brazil - furthers our understanding of how new democracies function. Responding to increasing concerns about the role of the judiciary in consolidating democracy, this research project offers important contributions to the debate on judicial politics and, more broadly, to that of democratization in Latin America. Finally, the research will also contribute to the development of a research framework with which to develop regional and cross-regional studies of judicial impact, and ultimately further illuminate the impact of state behavior on democracy.