Judicial Reform in Mexico: Political Insurance or the Search for Political Legitimacy?

Judicial reform presents a paradox: What makes governing elites decide to grant power to an autonomous judiciary that will eventually curtail their own powers? The engagement of governing elites in judicial reforms is recently being explained as strategic moves to protect their interests when they can foresee a future loss of political control. Using the Mexican reform process of 1994-95, this work discusses the applicability of such perspective for this case and offers an alternative explanation based on the reformers' need to legitimize their rule in a context marked by political competition and a discredited supreme court.