The role of perceptions on effective judicial access for the gay and lesbian and environmental social movements in Chile and Argentina

Abstract

The frequent gap between de jure and de facto arrangements within South American judicial systems suggest that an institutional focus is not enough to understand effective access. This dissertation uses a constructivist approach to measure judicial access for the environmental and gay and lesbian social movements in Chile and Argentina through examining the effect of societal, individual justices' and social movement activists' perceptions on the social movements' level of de facto judicial access. I find that while individual justices' perceptions of the social movement seeking rights can certainly affect the outcomes of cases, it is the external cultural variable of societal perceptions that more directly influences activists' own perceptions about using the judicial system. Societal perceptions (public opinion) can affect activists' decisions when choosing which political avenues, if any, they should use to gain rights - hence expanding or contracting their level of de jure judicial access.