Courts under Constraints

This study offers a new theoretical framework for understanding how institutional instability affects judicial behavior under dictatorship and democracy. In stark contrast to conventional wisdom, the central findings of the book contradict the longstanding assumption that only independent judges rule against the government of the day. Set in the context of Argentina, the study uses the tools of positive political theory to explore the conditions under which courts rule against the government. In addition to shedding new light on the dynamics of court-executive relations in Argentina, the study provides general lessons about institutions, instability, and the rule of law. In the process, the study builds a new set of connections among diverse bodies of scholarship, including US judicial politics, comparative institutional analysis, positive political theory, and Latin American politics.

Author Biography

Gretchen Helmke is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Rochester. Her research on comparative institutions and Latin American politics appears in several leading journals, including the American Political Science Review, Comparative Politics, and Desarollo Economico. Her research has received grants from the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council. She has been a visiting research fellow at the Fundacion Carlos Nino in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University.