Constitutional Jurisdiction and the Consolidation of Democracy

Abstract

This lecture elaborates on the kind of relationship that exists between constitutional jurisdiction and democratic consolidation by applying the comparative method to cover Latin American political—and especially judicial—systems. The argument is that constitutional jurisdiction is influenced by the very same factors that either favor or constrain democratic consolidation and that it exerts no negative influence over democratic consolidation. However, Nohlen identifies patterns of behavior that both judges and politicians are encouraged to adopt that strengthen the judiciary, and with it democratic stability, by fostering among the citizenry a culture of constitutionality. Nohlen also hopes to show that departures from those patterns of behavior even while conditions for democratic consolidation have not been terribly adverse, can be identified in the behavior of key actors in the period preceding and throughout, the populist turn that is now affecting Ecuadorean, Venezuelan, and Bolivian politics.