Constitutional Courts, descentralization and democracy: a research on the participation of subnational entities and the opening of judicial review

A Constitutional Court, in federal or quasi-federal countries, defines the degree of centralization or political decentralization. Therefore, this research seeks to identify whether the opening of the Court's decision-making process for the participation of state or subnational entities (such as State Government and Legislative Assembly) can attenuate centralization (these state level actors are heard by the Court or have access to it?). Constitutional Courts can determine the degree of homogeneity of the legal arrangements from a more or less centralized view of the Federal Constitution. Arguments such as the principle of symmetry and that of implicit powers deepen centralization and weaken democracy. Stronger participation of subnational level entities in the formation of decision-making could encourage the Court to grant more political autonomy to the member states in the formulation of their state constitutions.