Concentrated controls of constitutionality and public policies: the policy attention of the Brazilian Supreme Court and the agenda-setting process in Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to map, classify and analyze how the decisions of the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) - so called Supreme Federal Court (STF) - in the context of exercising concentrated constitutionality control, could guide the development of Brazilian governmental agendas. Therefore, an analysis will be made of decisions on typical concentrated control actions in the Brazilian law issued by the Supreme Court from the years 2011 to 2021. Such methodological and instrumental choices, observed in the light of the political process and agenda-setting literature, will indicate the number of decisions as well as the public policy themes judged by the Supreme Court throughout those years. The mapping is performed by encoding some government attention indicators, which is able to measure the frequency in which certain topics appear in the Brazilian judiciary, specifically in the Brazilian Supreme Court's decisions. The aim is to begin a path that compares the main focus in Brazilian Supreme Court decisions with other countries, identifying issues that approach over time, as well as variations and maintenance in matters carried to the Brazilian Supreme Court plenary, considered the highest level of the national judiciary. (AU)