How judges think in the Brazilian Supreme Court: Estimating ideal points and identifying dimensions

We use NOMINATE (Nominal Three Step Estimation) (Poole and Rosenthal, 1983, 1997) to estimate ideal points for all Supreme Court Justices in Brazil from 2002 to 2012. Based on these estimated preferences we identify the nature of the two main dimensions along which disagreements tend to occur in thi...

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Main Authors: Pedro Fernando Almeida Nery Ferreira, Bernardo Mueller
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Emerald Publishing 2014-09-01
Series:EconomiA
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1517758014000253
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author Pedro Fernando Almeida Nery Ferreira
Bernardo Mueller
author_facet Pedro Fernando Almeida Nery Ferreira
Bernardo Mueller
author_sort Pedro Fernando Almeida Nery Ferreira
collection DOAJ
description We use NOMINATE (Nominal Three Step Estimation) (Poole and Rosenthal, 1983, 1997) to estimate ideal points for all Supreme Court Justices in Brazil from 2002 to 2012. Based on these estimated preferences we identify the nature of the two main dimensions along which disagreements tend to occur in this Court. These estimates correctly predict over 95% of the votes on constitutional review cases in each of the compositions of the Court which we analyze. The main contribution of the paper is to identify that the main dimension along which preferences align in the Brazilian Supreme Court is for and against the economic interest of the Executive. This is significantly different than the conservative-liberal polarization of the US Supreme Court. Our estimates show that along this dimension the composition of the Court has been clearly favorable to the Executive's economic interests, providing the setting in which the dramatic transformation in institutions and policies that the country has undergone in last two decades could take place.
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spelling doaj.art-726e5ff4a27d48ab9dff318a655a57872022-12-22T00:50:29ZengEmerald PublishingEconomiA1517-75802014-09-0115327529310.1016/j.econ.2014.07.004How judges think in the Brazilian Supreme Court: Estimating ideal points and identifying dimensionsPedro Fernando Almeida Nery FerreiraBernardo MuellerWe use NOMINATE (Nominal Three Step Estimation) (Poole and Rosenthal, 1983, 1997) to estimate ideal points for all Supreme Court Justices in Brazil from 2002 to 2012. Based on these estimated preferences we identify the nature of the two main dimensions along which disagreements tend to occur in this Court. These estimates correctly predict over 95% of the votes on constitutional review cases in each of the compositions of the Court which we analyze. The main contribution of the paper is to identify that the main dimension along which preferences align in the Brazilian Supreme Court is for and against the economic interest of the Executive. This is significantly different than the conservative-liberal polarization of the US Supreme Court. Our estimates show that along this dimension the composition of the Court has been clearly favorable to the Executive's economic interests, providing the setting in which the dramatic transformation in institutions and policies that the country has undergone in last two decades could take place.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1517758014000253Supreme CourtIdeal pointsPolitical institutionsLaw and economics
spellingShingle Pedro Fernando Almeida Nery Ferreira
Bernardo Mueller
How judges think in the Brazilian Supreme Court: Estimating ideal points and identifying dimensions
EconomiA
Supreme Court
Ideal points
Political institutions
Law and economics
title How judges think in the Brazilian Supreme Court: Estimating ideal points and identifying dimensions
title_full How judges think in the Brazilian Supreme Court: Estimating ideal points and identifying dimensions
title_fullStr How judges think in the Brazilian Supreme Court: Estimating ideal points and identifying dimensions
title_full_unstemmed How judges think in the Brazilian Supreme Court: Estimating ideal points and identifying dimensions
title_short How judges think in the Brazilian Supreme Court: Estimating ideal points and identifying dimensions
title_sort how judges think in the brazilian supreme court estimating ideal points and identifying dimensions
topic Supreme Court
Ideal points
Political institutions
Law and economics
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1517758014000253
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