Democracy, electoral systems, and judicial empowerment in developing countries / Vineeta Yadav and Bumba Mukherjee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yadav, Vineeta, author.

Mukherjee, Bumba, author.

Series:

New comparative politics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Judicial independence--Developing countries.

Judicial independence.

Judicial review--Developing countries.

Judicial review.

New democracies.

Brazil--Politics and government.

Brazil.

Politics and government.

Indonesia--Politics and government.

Indonesia.

Developing countries.

Physical Description:

362 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : The University of Michigan Press, [2014]

Summary:

The power granted to the courts, both in a nation's constitution and in practice, reveals much about the willingness of the legislative and executive branches to accept restraints on their own powers. For this reason, an independent judiciary is considered an indication of a nations level of democracy. Vineeta Yadav and Bumba Mukherjee use a data set covering 159 developing countries, along with comparative case studies of Brazil and Indonesia, to identify the political conditions under which de jure independence is established. They find that the willingness of political elites to grant the courts authority to review the actions of the other branches of government depends on the capacity of the legislature and expectations regarding the judiciary's assertiveness. Moving next to de facto independence, Yadav and Mukherjee bring together data from 103 democracies in the developing world, complemented by case studies of Brazil, India, and Indonesia. Honing in on the effects of electoral institutions, the authors find that, when faced with short time horizons, governments that operate in personal vote electoral systems are likely to increase de facto judicial independence whereas governments in party-centered systems are likely to reduce it. Book jacket.

Contents:

Explaining variation in de jure and de facto judicial independence

The theoretical framework

New democracies and de jure judicial review : the empirical evidence

Democratic transition and judicial review in Indonesia and Brazil

Empirical tests for electoral particularism and de facto judicial independence

De Facto judicial independence in particularistic systems : Brazil and India

De Facto judicial independence in party-centered systems : post-Suharto Indonesia.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (315-352) and index.

ISBN:

9780472119080

0472119087

OCLC:

869140918