The Politics of Subnational Judicial Performance: Judicial Efficiency in 17 Mexican States, 1993-1998.

State courts play a vital role in political and economic development in Latin America, yet they are neglected subjects of comparative judicial scholarship. A subnational level of analysis enhances the comparative leverage of judicial scholarship, and is substantively important since the majority of litigation originates in state courts. This study analyzes the efficiency of the criminal justice sector in 17 Mexican states. Greater judicial efficiency reduces congestion and delay - two harms identified with weak judiciaries - and also increases access to the courts by reducing the amount of time that any one case remains in court. This quantitative study of judicial efficiency tests social, political, economic, and institutional explanations of variation in efficiency across states and changes in efficiency over time. The results indicate that social, economic, and institutional pressures shape judicial efficiency in important ways. Additionally, the results suggest a counterintuitive negative relationship between competitive politics and efficiency. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]