Lack of Communication Can Be Trouble: Brazilian Federal Supreme Court Decision-Making Behavior and Self-Promotion Strategies

Abstract

The post-1988 period in Brazil has brought as a consequence a greater role for the Judiciary in the political game, a fact that can be derived either from institutional arrangements or from strategies undertaken by its agents. Focusing on the second approach, the article explores whether exists a communication strategy between the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court (STF) and the public. According to the literature, in spite of the fact that the Judiciary differs from other political actors because it does not rely on the electorate, it is similar in terms of the need to provide transparency in its decisions, in order to achieve institutional legitimacy. In the Brazilian case, there is a constant externalization of messages directed at symbols of justice, objectivity, and impartiality and, since mid-2000’s, there has been an increase in the institution’s transparency, with emphasis on the televised transmission of its plenary sessions and a detailed institutional web page containing news and complete content of rulings. Considering that, from a comparative perspective, the constitutional court has become extremely exposed, one wonders: is there institutional selectivity in relation to its decisions? In order to answer this question, press releases from the Federal Supreme Court and judicial decisions were examined, over a 16-year time frame, from 2000 to 2016. The research utilized mixed methods: textual data mining techniques and statistics. The findings suggest that there is an intention, consistent throughout the time period studied, to transmit an image of an activist court.