No Self-Control: Decentralized Agenda Power and the Dimensional Structure of the Mexican Supreme Court

22 Pages Posted: 19 Jul 2010 Last revised: 6 Sep 2010

See all articles by Eric Magar

Eric Magar

Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) - Political Science Department

Beatriz Magaloni

Stanford University - Department of Political Science

Arianna Sanchez

Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP

Date Written: 2010

Abstract

We investigate the dimensionality of Mexico's Supreme Court by analyzing individual justice behavior in judicial review petitions heard between 1995 and 2007. We specify a dynamic, two-dimensional item response model to estimate ideal points and their temporal drift from all contested votes recorded in the period. We find ideal points scattered in all four quadrants of space at least some of the time in the period. Higher-dimensionality is expected in a Court with decentralized agenda power, like Mexico's. Analysis also reveals drastic realignments in justices' ideal points in the period. If the policy cleavage dominated at the start, judicial doctrine became preponderant towards the end, with a mix of both dimensions in between.

Keywords: Agenda power, docket control, spatial model, legal doctrine, Mexican Supreme Court

JEL Classification: D71, D72, K10, K49

Suggested Citation

Magar, Eric and Magaloni, Beatriz and Sanchez, Arianna, No Self-Control: Decentralized Agenda Power and the Dimensional Structure of the Mexican Supreme Court (2010). APSA 2010 Annual Meeting Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1642431

Eric Magar (Contact Author)

Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) - Political Science Department ( email )

Rio Hondo 1
Col. Tizapan San-Angel
Mexico City, D.F. 01000
Mexico
525556284079 (Phone)
525554904674 (Fax)

Beatriz Magaloni

Stanford University - Department of Political Science ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States
650-724-7481 (Phone)

Arianna Sanchez

Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP ( email )

101 Park Avenue
35th Floor
New York, NY 10178-0016
United States
2024650919 (Phone)

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