Courting Descriptive Representation

A key resource in the ongoing struggle to enhance descriptive representation in Brazil is a cross-sectoral informal network of women and allies from political party organizations, the Women’s Secretariat in the National Congress (SdM), the National Observatory for Women in Politics (ONMP), civil society, and the judiciary. Learning from decades of quota underperformance and elite resistance to inclusionary reforms and affirmative action policies in general, this network of critical actors has innovated to leverage a narrow but promising opportunity to effectuate real change through its engagement with the courts. As prior studies have demonstrated, when executives and/or legislatures degrade rights, judiciaries can be a critical ally for securing those rights. We engage literatures on feminist institutionalism, critical actors, social movements, the judiciary, intersectionality, and the quality of democracy, and empirical evidence from Brazil to understand how underrepresented groups can work with and through the State to overcome the multilevel constraints to their participation. Case studies, interviews, participant observation as feminist critical friends, and electoral and party organizational data demonstrate the salience of leadership, cross-sectoral collaboration among state and nonstate institutions and actors, resources, intersectional realities, and especially the judiciary in coordinated action leveraging opportunities and networks within and across these institutions to advance descriptive representation of women, Afro-Brazilians, and indigenous populations. We find that in bulwarking inclusionary laws and curbing impunity for their violation, judiciaries boost multiple dimensions of the quality of democracy, at once reinforcing the rule of law, accountability, and representativeness.