New Constitutionalism in Latin America by Schilling-Vacaflor Almut; Nolte Detlef; & Almut Schilling-Vacaflor

Author:Schilling-Vacaflor, Almut; Nolte, Detlef; & Almut Schilling-Vacaflor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-03-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Constitutionalizing Policy: The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 and its Impact on Governance

Rogério B. Arantes and Cláudio G. Couto

Constitutional instability has proved to be a characteristic of the history of Latin America. This is apparent in the frequent cases of full constitutional replacement or broad constitutional revision by legislatures, and of constitutional amendments and change via judicial interpretation. It is possible to distinguish between three substantive processes of change: the re-founding of a nation-state; the reformulation of the rules of the competitive-democratic game; and the alteration and constitutionalization of public policy-making.1 Each one of these has distinct political causes and consequences depending on the political processes specific to each country. The first two have received significant attention from political scientists, but little is known about the third. In this chapter, we propose an analytical framework to explain the constitutionalization of public policy and how it affects decision-making and constitutional processes. Although we focus on the Brazilian case, our theory and hypotheses are relevant for comparative studies and can be applied to other national experiences.

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