Abstract

BUQUET, Daniel; SCHMIDT, Nicolás  and  MORAES, Juan A.. The Politics of Judicial Independence: Exploring Supreme Court Decisions in Uruguay (1989-2018). Rev. Urug. Cienc. Polít. [online]. 2020, vol.29, n.1, pp.135-156.  Epub June 01, 2020. ISSN 0797-9789.  https://doi.org/10.26851/rucp.29.1.6.

What is the role of the Judiciary in Uruguayan politics? Like most Latin American countries, social science research among domestic scholars has been mainly focused on political institutions and public policies. Yet, recent political developments have challenged this focus, as judicial institutions have become more salient in the political process, either reinforcing or reverting important policy decisions of governments. While some pundits have argued that the judiciary has become more politicized, others have argued for a judicialization of politics. Nevertheless, there is no evidence revealing the political nature of judicial decisions made in Uruguay. This paper studies the Uruguayan Supreme Court divided decisions between 1989 and 2018, by exploring the individual decisions made by judges on every unconstitutional demand made by citizens and a wide variety of civil society organizations and pressure groups. The research extends the W-nominate technique, developed for the study of legislative bodies, to the votes made by individual judges, showing an ideological profile of voting patterns during the period under study.

Keywords : Judicial Politics; Uruguay Supreme Court; Unconstitutionality; attitudinal model.

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