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Loyalty to the party or loyalty to the party leader: Evidence from the Spanish Constitutional Court

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  • Garoupa, Nuno
  • Gili, Marian
  • Gómez Pomar, Fernando

Abstract

In a recent article, Epstein and Posner (2016) make an important distinction between ideological alignment and personal loyalty to the appointer. We use constitutional adjudication at the Spanish Constitutional Court to test for this distinction. We consider all constitutional review decisions in cases initiated by explicit political actors (recursos de constitucionalidad) from 1980 to 2018 (removal of Mariano Rajoy as prime minister); a total of 8675 individual votes by constitutional judges in reference to 773 decisions taken by the Spanish Constitutional Court. The results obtained are consistent with a personal loyalty effect. Decomposition by nonunanimous decisions and appointing bodies do not undermine the statistical significance of an effect coherent with personal loyalty. However, the results indicate that the effect seems to be stronger more recently and for Zapatero’s appointees, in a period dominated by the financial crisis and the Catalan political situation.

Suggested Citation

  • Garoupa, Nuno & Gili, Marian & Gómez Pomar, Fernando, 2021. "Loyalty to the party or loyalty to the party leader: Evidence from the Spanish Constitutional Court," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:67:y:2021:i:c:s0144818821000235
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2021.105999
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Julio López-Laborda & Fernando Rodrigo & Eduardo Sanz-Arcega, 2018. "Is the Spanish Constitutional Court an instrument of the central government against the Autonomous Communities?," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 317-337, September.
    2. Nuno Garoupa & Fernando Gomez-Pomar & Veronica Grembi, 2013. "Judging under Political Pressure: An Empirical Analysis of Constitutional Review Voting in the Spanish Constitutional Court," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 29(3), pages 513-534, June.
    3. Gemma Sala, 2014. "Can Courts Make Federalism Work? A Game Theory Approach to Court-Induced Compliance and Defection in Federal Systems," Economies, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-25, December.
    4. Gely, Rafael & Spiller, Pablo T, 1990. "A Rational Choice Theory of Supreme Court Statutory Decisions with Applications to the State Farm and Grove City Cases," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 263-300, Fall.
    5. Lee Epstein & Eric A. Posner, 2016. "Supreme Court Justices' Loyalty to the President," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(2), pages 401-436.
    6. Julio López-Laborda & Fernando Rodrigo & Eduardo Sanz-Arcega, 2018. "Correction to: Is the Spanish Constitutional Court an instrument of the central government against the Autonomous Communities?," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 338-338, September.
    7. Segal, Jeffrey A. & Cover, Albert D., 1989. "Ideological Values and the Votes of U.S. Supreme Court Justices," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 83(2), pages 557-565, June.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Aji Deni & Abdul Halil Hi. Ibrahim & Mahmud Husen & Rasid Pora, 2022. "VOS Viewer Application Literature Analysis and Scientific Landscape Visualization of Party Leaders and Leadership," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 6(12), pages 635-643, December.

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