Judging Policy: Courts and Policy Reform in Democratic Brazil. MATTHEW M. TAYLOR: Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008.

Abstract

Matthew M. Taylor, a North Americanpolitical scientist who teaches at the University of São Paulo, seeks toexplain why it is that particular political actors have used the federal courtsto challenge Brazilian presidents and Congress on matters of policy reform. Inrecent years Brazilian courts have often served as effective weapons for thosewho want to delay the implementation of policies, whether the privatization ofstate-owned companies or the reform of pension programs. In some cases, thishas created an opportunity for the policies themselves to be changed. Taylorbuilds his argument in a core chapter on a relatively small number of casestudies from the 1990s when Fernando Henrique Cardoso was president.